UC-NRLF 

"    Mllll  III  lllll! 


I  III 


SB    M7D    flT3 


MnmT'bHlSTORl'  I 

LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

Class 

•foeroes  of  tbe  IFlations, 


PER  VOLUME,  CLOTH,  $1.50.       HALF  MOROCCO,  $1.75. 


I. — Nelson,  and  the  Naval  Supremacy  of  England. 

By  W.  Clark  Russell,  author  of  "The  Wreck  of 

the  Grosvenor,"  etc. 
II. — Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  the  Struggle  of  Protest- 
antism for  Existence.     By  C.  R.  L.  Fletcher, 

M.A.,  late  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College,  Oxford. 
III. — Pericles,   and   the   Golden   Age   of  Athens.     By 

Evelyn  Abbott,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Balliol  College, 

Oxford. 
IV. — Theodoric  the  Goth,  the  Barbarian  Champion  of 

Civilization.      By   Thomas    Hodgkin,  author   of 

"Italy  and  Her  Invaders,"  etc. 
V.— Sir   Philip   Sidney  :   Type  of  English  Chivalry. 

By  H.  R.  Fox  Bourne. 
VI. — Julius  Caesar,  and  the  Organization  of  the  Roman 

Empire.     By  Warde  Fowler,   M.A.,    Fellow  of 

Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 

(For  titles  of  volumes  next  to  appear  and  for  further  detail? 
of  this  Series  see  prospectus  at  end  of  volume.) 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S   SONS,  Publishers, 

NEW  YORK  AND    LONDON 


Iberoes  of  tbe  IFiationg 

EDITED    BY 

Evelyn  Bbbott,  /ft.B. 

FKLLOW  OF  BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 


FACTA    DUCIS    VIVENT    OPEROSAQUE 
GLORIA    RERUM.— OVID,   IN  LIVIAM,    265 
THE   HERO'S    DEEDS    AND    HARD-WON 
FAME    SHALL    LIVE. 


JOHN  WYCLIF 


JOHN    WYCLIF. 


FROM    HOUSTON' 


MEZZOTINT    IN    ROLT'S  LIVES    OF    THE    REFORMERS 

A   TABULA    IN    COLL.    REG.    CANTAB." 


JOHN  WYCLIF 


LAST  OF  THE  SCHOOLMEN  AND  FIRST 
OF  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMERS 


BY 

LEWIS   SERGEANT 

AUTHOR    OF  "NEW    GREECE  "  ETC. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW    YORK  LONDON 

27    WEST   TWENTY-THIRD    STREET  24    BEDFORD    STREET,  STRAND 

$,\iz  gutickerboehcr  ||rcss 
1893 


2.  . 


S'Y- 


Main  Tib    HISTORr  I 


OC-V)  . 


COPYRIGHT,    1892,  BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 

by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 


Electrotyped,  Printed,  and  Bound  by 

Wye  Ikmcfecrbocker  press,  mew  l^orfe 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 


HE  plan  on  which  this  volume  has 
been  written,  and  (I  trust)  the 
excuse  for  adding  one  more 
to  the  considerable  number  of 
recent  works  on  Wyclif,  are  per- 
haps sufficiently  indicated  in  the  first 
few  chapters,  and  particularly  in  the 
irth.  It  might  not  have  been  worth 
le  to  rewrite  the  story  of  this  English 
worthy  of  the  fourteenth  century,  even 
with  the  encouragement  of  a  few  fresh  facts  and  side- 
lights to  develop  and  illustrate  his  character,  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  of 
doing  something  to  popularise  the  picture  of  John 
Wyclif  as  an  Oxford  Schoolman,  and  the  picture  of 
the  Schoolmen  in  general  as  pioneers  of  the  Refor- 
mation of  Religion  and  the  Revival  of  Learning. 

In  a  volume  not  specially  intended  for  laborious 
students,  it  would  scarcely  have  been  appropriate  to 
enter  on  a  detailed  examination  of  Wyclif's  scholastic 
and  controversial  writings.  Such  a  work  remains  to 
be  accomplished,  but  it  cannot  well  be  undertaken 
until  the  Wyclif  Society  has  completed  its  task. 
For  a  similar  reason  I  have  not  introduced  a  full 


225698 


iv  Preface. 

bibliography  of  books  and  other  documents  relating 
to  Wyclif.  Most  of  my  authorities  will  be  found 
cited  in  the  text  and  notes  ;  but  I  would  here  express 
my  special  obligation  to  the  editors  of  various 
volumes  in  the  Rolls  Series,  to  the  writers  of  sundry 
articles  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography — 
which  has  become  indispensable  to  every  historical 
student,— to  Mr.  R.  L.  Poole,  and  Mr.  F.  D.  Matthew. 
Of  the  reputed  portraits  of  Wyclif  mentioned  in 
the  first  chapter,*  six  are  reproduced  in  the  present 
volume.  Three  of  the  most  characteristic  of  these — 
the  Bale,  Hondius,  and  Houston  engravings — do  not 
seem  to  have  been  printed  since  the  centuries  in 
which  they  were  respectively  produced.  At  any  rate 
the  six  are  now  brought  together  for  the  first  time, 
and  the  reader  must  be  left  to  determine  for  himself 
which  of  the  series  is  most  likely  to  represent  John 
Wyclif  as  he  lived. 

L.  S. 

November,  1892. 


*  See  also  At/ien<zum,  September  17,  1892. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 

PACE 

L- 

—The  Character  of  Wyclif 

. 

I 

II.- 

—The  Seething  of  Europe 

22 

III.- 

—Monks  and  Friars 

40 

IV.- 

—Wyclif  and  the  Schoolmen 

. 

59 

V.- 

— Wyclif's  Early  Days     . 

. 

76 

VI.- 

—Wyclif  as  Politician     . 

100 

VII.- 

—The  Conference  at  Bruges 

. 

123 

VIII.- 

—Wyclif  and  the  National  C 

HURCH 

141 

IX.- 

—Persecution    . 

i57 

X.- 

—Pope  Gregory's  Bulls   . 

. 

i75 

XI.- 

—Wyclif  the  Evangelist 

. 

i93 

XII.- 

—The  Decisive  Step 

219 

XIII.- 

—Condemned  at  Oxford 

. 

243 

XIV.- 

— Wyclif's  Poor  Priests  . 

258 

XV. 

—The  Headless  Rebellion 

V 

• 

281 

VI 


Contents. 


CHAPTER 

XVI 


PAGE 
299 

324 


Courtenay's  Triumph    . 
XVII  —  The  Last  Stage      .... 

XVIII. — The  Work  that  Lived  ....     337 

Chronology   of  Events  connected  with 

Wyclif     ........     360 

Index 373 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

john  wyclif.  from  houston's  mezzotint  in 
rolt's   u  lives   of   the   reformers  "  ;    "a 

TABULA  IN  COLL.      REG.  CONTAB."  Fr07ltispiece 

JOHN    WYCLIF.       THE    DENBIGH    PORTRAIT           .            .  12 

JOHN  WYCLIF.  FROM  BALL'S  "  SUMMARIUM  "  .  .  2  2 
DOMINICAN  (BLACK)  FRIAR.      13TH  CENTURY.      FROM 

MIGNE'S  "  ENCYCLOP^DIE  "  40 
FRANCISCAN  (GREY)  FRIAR.       FROM  MIGNE'S  "  ENCY- 

CLOPETJIE  "                                    52 

JOHN    DUNS    SCOTUS "  DOCTOR    SUBTILIS."        BY    J. 

FABER,    FROM    THE    OXFORD    PORTRAIT       .             .  68 

JOHN  wyclif.  Hondius fecit.       76 

WYCLIFFE,     NEAR       ROKEBY.       SKETCH       FROM       THE 

PAINTING    BY    J.  M.  W.  TURNER  ...  86 

WYCLIFFE      CHURCH.       PARTLY     CONTEMPORANEOUS 

WITH    WYCLIF  (?) 94 

WILLIAM  OF  WYKEHAM,  BISHOP  OF  WINCHESTER. 
FROM  A  PORTRAIT  BY  J.  FABER  IN  THE  HALL 
OF   NEW    COLLEGE,    OXFORD        .  .  .  .       Il6 

A    BENEDICTINE    MONK       .  .  .  .  .  .       Il8 


Illustrations. 


PAGE 

pope  gregory  xi.     1370-8 1 24 

queen  philippa,  consort  of  edward  iii.  from 
a  portrait  in  the  hall  of  queen's 
college,  oxford 1 28 

old   st.    Paul's  —  exterior.       from   dugdale's 

"history  of  st.  Paul's  cathedral  "     .         .     160 

interior  of  old  st.  paul's,  looking  east.  from 
dugdale's  "history  of  st.  Paul's  cathe- 
dral " 162 

old  st.  Paul's  chapter  house,     from  dugdale's 

"history  of  st.  Paul's  cathedral  "     .        .     164 

monument  of  john,  duke  of  lancaster,  and  of 
his  wife  constance,  in  old  st.  paul's.  from 
dugdale's  "  history  of  st.  paul's  cathe- 
DRAL " 166 

new    college,    oxford.      part    of    the    city 

wall,     contemporaneous  with  wyclif      .     176 

pope  urban  vi.     1378-89 192 

a  page  from  the  pleshy  bible  [wyclif's]. 
owned  by  thomas  of  woodstock,  duke  of 
gloucester,  son  of  edward  iii.  egerton 
mss.,  british  museum,  reduced  to  about 
one-third  linear 212 

st.  mary's,  oxford,  tower  partly  contempo- 
raneous WITH   WYCLIF 2l8 

ARCHBISHOP     ARUNDEL.       FROM    AN    OLD     PORTRAIT 

IN    LAMBETH  PALACE  ....       222 

JOHN    WYCLIF.       ENGRAVED    BY    E.    FINDEN,    FROM  A 
PORTRAIT     ATTRIBUTED     TO     ANTONIO     MORO  \ 
NOW      AN     HEIRLOOM     IN     THE     RECTORY     OF 
WYCLIF-ON-TEES 258 

LUTTERWORTH  CHURCH.  PARTLY  CONTEMPORANE- 
OUS   WITH    WYCLIF 268 


Illustrations. 


IX 


THE     PRIESTS'  DOORWAY,     LUTTERWORTH    CHURCH, 

THROUGH  WHICH  WYCLIF's   BODY    WAS   TAKEN,       270 

ST.    FRIDESWIDE'S  SHRINE.      IN  THE   LATIN  CHAPEL, 

CHRIST   CHURCH    CATHEDRAL,    OXFORD      .  .      320 

WESTMACOTT'S  MONUMENT  OF  WYCLIF  AT  LUTTER- 
WORTH        f  322 

JOHN    WYCLIF.      THE   DORSET    PORTRAIT  .  .      324 

RICHARD  FLEMMYNG,  BISHOP  OF   LINCOLN,  FOUNDER 

OF   LINCOLN   COLLEGE,    OXFORD  .  .  .      334 

LUTTERWORTH  CHURCH — INTERIOR.  PARTLY  CON- 
TEMPORANEOUS WITH  WYCLIF  ;  SHOWING  AN 
ANCIENT   FRESCO    OF    THE   DAY    OF   JUDGMENT,       336 

ARCHBISHOP  CHICHELEY,   1414-43,  FOUNDER  OF  ALL 

SOULS.       BY  J.  FABER 354 


JOHN  WYCLIF. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   CHARACTER   OF    WYCLIF. 

ILflOME  sixty  years  ago  one  of 
the  most  graphic  of  our  his- 
torical painters,  Sir  David 
Wilkie,  completed  for  Sir 
Robert  Peel  a  magnificent 
panel,  which  had  occupied 
his  thoughts  for  more  than 
ten  years.  It  represents  John 
Knox,  the  Scottish  Reformer, 
preaching  before  the  Lords  of  Congregation  at  St. 
Andrew's,  on  the  ioth  of  June,  1559.  It  was  a  time 
of  strife  and  violence,  when  religious  reform  could 
only  be  won  or  defeated  by  the  sword,  and  when  the 
preaching  of  a  man  like  Knox  was  often  followed  by 
speedy  and  startling  results.  Wilkie  has  introduced 
into    his    picture    not    merely    the    calm    and    com- 

1 


John  Wyclif. 


placent  forms  of  Murray,  Morton,  and  Argyll,  but 
also,  in  the  stalls  above  them,  the  archbishops  of 
St.  Andrew's  and  Glasgow,  with  Abbot  Kennedy, 
the  foremost  champions  of  Rome,  so  soon  to  be 
overtaken  by  the  rising  tide  of  Protestantism.  The 
preacher,  terrible  in  his  unrestrained  zeal  and  fervour, 
bends  low  down  over  his  pulpit,  as  though  his  eager 
soul  and  winged  words  would  drag  the  body  after 
them.  A  jackman  in  attendance  on  the  archbishops, 
standing  with  his  arquebus  in  his  hand,  glares  fiercely 
at  the  bold  iconoclast,  as  though  he  were  on  the 
point  of  avenging  the  insult  to  his  master;  whilst 
a  young  member  of  the  university,  standing  near 
the  pulpit,  is  on  the  alert  to  defend  the  preacher  in 
case  of  need.  It  could  not  have  been  the  Admirable 
Crichton,  as  Wilkie  meant  it  to  be,  for  James 
Crichton  was  not  born  until  the  following  year ; 
but  we  may  take  the  figure  as  representing  the 
liberal  movement  in  the  premier  university  of  Scot- 
land at  one  of  its  most  brilliant  epochs. 

The  whole  scene  is  full  of  life  and  motion.  The 
artist  has  made  his  picture  speak,  and  we  are  re- 
minded, as  we  look  at  it,  of  all  the  long  struggle  for 
religious  reform  in  Scotland,  which  was  now  on  the 
eve  of  completion.  Not  many  days  after  the  preach- 
ing of  that  sermon  the  old  order  of  things  was  over- 
thrown, the  monasteries  were  dissolved,  pictures  and 
images  were  turned  out  of  the  churches,  and  the 
revolution  to  which  Knox  had  devoted  himself  was 
accomplished.  It  would  be  strange  if  from  such  a 
scene  and  from  such  a  character  the  mind  did  not 
revert  to  the  events  and  the  men  of  two  hundred 


The  Character  of  Wyclif. 


years  ago,  to  the  earlier  reformation  period  in  Eng- 
land, to  the  lords  and  bishops  and  abbots,  to  the 
men  of  action  and  the  men  of  study,  and,  above  all, 
to  the  zealous  leader  of  the  first  assault  on  Rome.     \ 

Between  John  Wyclif  and  John  Knox  there  is 
a  curious  and  striking  resemblance,  in  more  points 
than  one — such  a  resemblance  as  occurs  not  infre- 
quently between  two  historical  characters  who  from 
similar  beginnings  have  pursued  a  somewhat  similar 
course  in  life.  No  one  who  has  made  himself  famil- 
iar with  the  various  portraits  and  engravings  which 
preserve  for  us  at  any  rate  the  traditional  features 
of  Wyclif  can  fail  to  be  arrested  when  he  sees  the 
face  of  Knox,  as  Wilkie  has  reproduced  it  from 
earlier  pictures.  It  is  not  so  much  that  the  exact 
lineaments  correspond  in  such  a  way  as  to  catch  the 
attention  of  a  casual  observer,  though  even  in  this 
sense  the  parallel  is  sufficiently  remarkable.  The 
type  and  character  of  the  two  heads  are  the  same ; 
you  cannot  look  at  one  without  thinking  of  the 
other.  The  .keen  intelligent  eyes,  the  drawn  feat- 
ures with  their  ascetic  cast,  the  resolute  lips  which 
bespeak  an  absolutely  fearless  heart,  are  present  in 
all  the  pictures ;  and  a  grizzled  patriarchal  beard 
serves  to  deepen  the  similarity. 

But  if  the  physical  resemblance  between  Wyclif 
and  Knox  is  noteworthy,  still  more  so  is  the  parallel 
presented  by  the  leading  events  of  their  lives.  Both 
were  born  and  bred  in  the  Latin  rite,  and  became 
conspicuous  as  secular  priests  of  the  Roman  Church. 
Knox,  at  St.  Andrew's,  and  Wyclif,  at  Oxford,  clung 
to  the  courts  of  their  beloved  universities,  and  there, 


John  Wyclif. 


with  a  passionate  zeal  for  truth,  half  led  and  half 
followed  the  men  of  their  day  in  a  moral  revolt 
against  the  later  doctrine  of  Rome.  Both,  between 
the  age  of  forty  and  fifty,  came  to  be  recognised  as 
teachers  of  religious  liberalism  ;  both  became  king's 
chaplains  and  received  the  royal  protection ;  both 
protested  against  the  idolatry  of  the  mass  and  the 
undue  exaltation  of  the  priestly  office;  both  were 
repeatedly  charged  with  heresy ;  both  defended 
themselves  with  the  utmost  energy,  and  flung  them- 
selves into  the  path  of  danger  in  spite  of  threats  and 
condemnations.  Both  stirred  and  inflamed  their 
hearers  in  scathing  sermons,  and  both  were  inhibited 
from  preaching  by  their  earlier  patrons  when  they 
had  served  the  turn  of  the  politicians.  Both  were 
struck  down,  by  apoplexy  or  paralysis,  at  the  same 
age,  and  both  died  a  couple  of  years  later — Wyclif 
hot  with  indignation  over  the  papal  crusade,  and 
Knox  with  his  latest  breath  denouncing  the  massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew's.  And  the  same  epitaph  might 
be  written  over  the  grave  of  each — "  Here  lies  one 
who  never  feared  the  face  of  man." 

If  there  is  nothing  in  such  a  parallel  but  a  series 
of  simple  coincidences,  still  it  may  suffice  to  bring 
us  from  the  very  beginning  almost  into  touch  with 
the  religious  Reformer  of  the  fourteenth  century,  by 
showing  in  how  many  essentials  he  was  an  antetype 
and  counterpart  of  the  enthusiast  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Nor  will  it  fail  to  suggest  how  near  akin 
may  be  the  pioneers  of  moral  development  in  every 
age,  even  across  the  interval  of  five  hundred  years. 
If  we  were  to  look  to  our  own  day  for  parallels  to 


The  Character  of  Wyclif. 


the  character  and  career  of  John  Wyclif,  we  might 
find  none  so  close  and  continuous  as  that  which  is 
afforded  by  the  biography  of  Knox,  but  at  any  rate 
there  would  be  no  lack  of  brief  and  partial  remind- 
ers to  show  how  the  spiritual  needs  of  successive 
generations  call  forth  the  very  qualities  which  are 
required  to  satisfy  them,  and  how  in  this  way  also 
the  history  of  Wyclif  has  tended  to  repeat  itself. 
The  adventurous  pioneer  of  the  college  cloister  or 
university  lecture-room,  the  innovating  spirit  of  the 
tractarian  or  the  homilist,  the  missionary  zeal  which 
organizes  and  sends  forth  an  army  of  Christian  sol- 
diers, the  hardihood  which  converts  a  simple  priest 
into  a  politician,  a  socialist,  a  champion  of  the  dregs 
of  humanity — we  too  have  known  them  all  within 
the  limits  of  a  lifetime,  and  each  in  many  varying 
forms. 

Wyclif  was  neither  a  Wesley  nor  a  Simeon,  neither 
a  Wilberforce  nor  a  Newman  nor  a  Booth,  and  yet 
there  is  a  sense  in  which  he  combined  the  qualities 
of  all  these  men,  vastly  as  they  differ  from  each 
other.  The  distinction  of  his  multiple  character 
arises  from  the  fact  that  he  stands  forth  so  promi- 
nently in  an  age  which  forms  a  joint  and  hinge  of 
religious  history.  He  possessed  nothing  whatsoever 
of  that  which  we  now  understand  by  the  spirit  of 
sectarianism.  His  claim  was  to  be  recognised  as 
abiding  in  the  ancient  ways  of  faith,  as  upholding  or 
seeking  to  restore  the  faith  which  Christ  had  founded, 
and  which  Christ  gave  no  man  the  power  or  authority 
to  change.  Standing  firm  on  such  a  basis,  it  was 
impossible  that  he  should  be  a  heretic,  or  a  schis- 


John  Wyclif. 


matic,  or  a  sectarian.  Rome  might  be  heretical,  and 
that  is  what  he  called  her.  The  Papacy  might  be 
Antichrist,  and  he  fixed  the  name  upon  it.  Clearly 
he  was  right  or  wrong  according  as  the  ground 
which  he  took  up  was  evangelical  or  anti-scriptural 
— according  as  he  interpreted  aright  or  misinter- 
preted the  message  of  Christ  to  the  world. 

Wyclif  and  his  friends  were  the  earliest  protest- 
ants,  not  because  they  revolted  against  authority, 
and  wanted  a  church  unfettered  by  authority,  but 
because  they  went  back  to  the  first  and  strictest 
authority  of  all,  and  rejected  its  merely  human 
accretions.  They  did  not  carry  their  protest  back- 
ward for  more  than  three  centuries.  They  held  by 
the  Fathers,  and  the  earlier  councils  and  canons, 
repudiating  the  new  dogmas  and  definitions  which 
had  been  imposed  on  the  Church  after  the  first 
millennium  of  the  Christian  eVa.  The  position  occu- 
pied by  this  fourteenth-century  school  of  Oxford 
criticism  was  one  of  great  dignity  and  weight,  which 
the  prelates  of  that  age  could  not  easily  attack. 
Apart  from  the  royal  favour  which  was  accorded 
to  the  Wycliffites  for  many  years,  it  was  impossible 
for  the  archbishops  and  bishops  to  prosecute  with  a 
light  heart  the  most  distinguished  Oxford  men  of 
the  day,  who  for  a  time  seem  to  have  been  backed 
by  a  majority  of  the  resident  members  of  the  uni- 
versity. It  must  be  clearly  borne  in  mind  that 
Wyclif's  standing  was  that  of  a  doctor  and  professor 
of  theology,  an  ex-master  of  Balliol,  a  brilliant  lec- 
turer and  preacher,  a  king's  chaplain,  and  a  trusted 
adviser  of  Parliament.     He  was,  in  short,  one  of  the 


Hie  Character  of  Wyclif. 


chief  notabilities  of  his  time,  and,  though  the  friars 
were  not  slow  in  detecting  and  denouncing  his  unor- 
thodox views,  their  own  unpopularity  must  have 
made  it  more  difficult  for  the  hierarchy  of  the  Church 
to  take  action  than  it  would  have  been  if  the  Orders 
had  held  their  peace. 

If  John  Wyclif  had  been  a  protestant,  and  a 
heresiarch,  and  nothing  more,  or  if  he  had  been 
known  to  us  mainly  by  his  controversies  and  his 
writings,  we  might  have  been  content  to  regard  him 
with  a  somewhat  perfunctory  interest  as  "  the  morn- 
ing-star of  the  Reformation,"  or  as  a  scholastic  theo- 
logian who  wrote  voluminous  treatises  in  dry  mediae- 
val Latin  and  decidedly  uncouth  English.  Truth  to 
tell,  the  works  of  Wyclif  are  not  and  cannot  be  made 
very  attractive  to  men  and  women  of  the  present 
day.  Their  importance  in  the  history  of  religious 
belief  is  incalculable,  and  to  the  systematic  student  of 
that  history  they  will  always  be  indispensable.  For 
the  general  reader  they  are,  in  their  complete  form, 
not  only  superfluous  but  even  a  little  misleading.  At 
all  events  they  do  not  show  us  the  true  or  the  most 
lovable  Wyclif,  any  more  than  Milton's  controversies 
with  Salmasius  show  us  the  author  of  Lycidas  at 
his  best.  Happily  there  is  enough  in  the  personal 
history  of  Wyclif,  as  a  man  rather  than  as  a  writer, 
and  as  an  evangelist  rather  than  as  a  controversialist, 
to  excite  interest  and  affection  in  no  ordinary  degree, 
and  to  warrant  us  in  treating  him  as  one  of  England's 
worthies. 

An  unbroken  chain  of  evidence,  stretching  across 
the  five  centuries  which  have  passed  since  his  death, 


8  John  Wyclif. 


might  easily  be  traced  out  to  show  how  the  tradition 
of  Wyclif's  character  and  achievements — as  distinct 
from  any  concise  written  history — has  been  preserved 
and  handed  down  in  the  memory  of  his  countrymen. 
In  the  sixteenth  century,  as  one  would  naturally 
expect,  the  protagonist  of  reform  was  constantly 
cited,  whether  for  honour  or  for  reproach,  though  as 
yet  very  little  had  been  rediscovered  of  his  half- 
obliterated  writings.  Dr.  James,  of  New  College, 
who  was  Bodley's  librarian  at  the  close  of  that 
century,  wrote  a  warm  Apologie  for  John  Wick- 
liffe,  partly  in  answer  to  a  vicious  attack  from  the 
Jesuit  Parsons.  "  The  early  Reformer,"  says  James, 
"  was  beloved  of  all  good  men  for  his  good  life,  and 
greatly  admired  of  his  greatest  adversaries  for  his 
learning  and  knowledge,  both  in  divinity  and 
humanity.  He  writ  so  many  large  volumes  in  both 
as  it  is  almost  incredible.  ...  Of  Ocham  and 
Marsilius  he  was  informed  of  the  pope's  intrusions  and 
usurpations  upon  kings,  their  crowns  and  dignities; 
of  Guido  de  S.  Amore  and  Armachanus  he  learned 
the  sundry  abuses  of  monks  and  friars  in  upholding 
this  usurped  power  ;  by  Abelard  and  others  he  was 
grounded  in  the  right  faith  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper ;  by  Bradwardine  in  the  nature  of 
a  true  soul-justifying  faith  against  merit-mongers 
and  pardoners ;  finally,  by  reading  Grosthead's 
works,  in  whom  he  seemed  to  be  most  conversant, 
he  descried  the  pope  to  be  open  antichrist,  by 
letting  [preventing]  the  gospel  to  be  preached,  and 
by  placing  unable  and  unfit  men  in  the  Church  of 
God." 


The  Character  of  Wyclif, 


Foxe  the  martyrologist  wrote  lives  of  Wyclif, 
Thorpe,  and  Cobham,  with  very  inadequate  mate- 
rials so  far  as  the  first  of  the  three  is  concerned. 
Wyclif,  he  says,  "  tooke  great  paines,  protesting  (as 
they  said)  openlie  in  the  schooles  that  it  was  his 
chiefe  and  principall  purpose  and  intent  to  revoke 
and  call  back  the  Church  from  her  idolatrie  to  some 
better  amendment."  And  he  adds  :  "  The  whole  glut 
of  monks  and  begging  friers  were  set  on  a  rage  or 
madnesse  which  (even  as  hornets  with  their  sharpe 
stings)  did  assaile  this  good  man  on  every  side." 

Even  Netter  of  Walden — one  of  the  adversaries 
referred  to  by  James — admitted  that  he  was  "  won- 
derfully astonished  at  his  [Wyclif s]  most  strong 
arguments,  with  the  authorities  which  he  had 
assembled,  and  with  the  vehemence  and  force  of  his 
reasons." 

These  are  but  casual  testimonies  to  the  repute  of 
Wyclif  in  the  two  centuries  succeeding  his  death. 
William  Thorpe,  one  of  the  younger  contemporaries 
of  the  Reformer,  paid  his  master  a  high  tribute  in 
the  course  of  his  examination  for  heresy  before 
Archbishop  Arundel.  "  Master  John  Wyclif,"  he 
said  (as  quoted  by  Bale),  "  was  considered  by  many 
to  be  the  most  holy  of  all  the  men  in  his  age.  He 
was  of  emaciated  frame,  spare,  and  wellnigh  desti- 
tute of  strength  ;  and  he  was  absolutely  blameless  in 
his  conduct.  Wherefore  very  many  of  the  chief  men 
of  this  kingdom,  who  frequently  held  counsel  with 
him,  were  devotedly  attached  to  him,  kept  a  record 
of  what  he  said,  and  guided  themselves  after  his 
manner  of  life." 


io  John  Wyclif. 


These  three  sentences,  it  may  be  observed,  are  the 
most  valuable  piece  of  evidence  which  we  possess — 
beyond  what  may  be  gathered  from  occasional 
references  to  himself  in  Wyclif's  works — as  to  his 
personal  characteristics  and  physical  appearance ; 
and  they  are  confirmed  by  all  the  side-lights  which 
we  are  able  to  obtain  of  him. 

Wyclif's  temper  in  controversial  argument  was  by 
no  means  always  equable — and  to  say  this  is  only  to 
admit  that  he  had  the  temper  and  the  method  of 
his  day.  He  takes  himself  to  task  in  one  of  his 
books,  on  The  Truth  of  Holy  Scripture  (written 
in  1379),  for  his  shortcomings  in  this  respect.  "In 
order  that  there  may  be  no  lack  of  material,"  he 
says,  "  for  the  strife  which  my  censors  have  raised 
over  me,  I  will  say  that  I  have  adopted  out  of  the 
Scriptures  a  threefold  rule  of  life.  First,  that  I 
should  cleanse  myself  by  taking  more  diligent  heed 
concerning  the  charge  which  is  brought  against  me, 
that  I  too  readily  impart  a  sinister,  vindictive  zeal 
into  my  legitimate  line  of  argument — if  I  may  be 
said  to  have  any.  As  for  the  imputation  of  hypo- 
crisy, hatred,  and  rancour  under  a  pretence  of  holi- 
ness, I  fear,  and  I  admit  it  with  sorrow,  this  has 
happened  to  me  too  frequently,  by  reason  whereof 
I  deserve  to  suffer  much  greater  blame  than  has 
yet  been  cast  upon  me.  Whilst  I  importune  my  God 
with  prayer  in  respect  of  my  spiritual  faults,  which 
it  is  for  God  alone  to  know,  I  will  strive  more  dili- 
gently to  be  on  my  guard  henceforth  about  the 
other  matter.  Secondly,  whilst  the  devil  goes  about 
as  a  roaring  lion  seeking  whom  he  may  devour,  he 


The  Character  of  Wyclif,  1 1 

tries  to  besmirch  the  good  repute  of  such  as  he  can- 
not devour  on  the  ground  of  open  wickedness,  that 
he  may  destroy  them  in  this  way  by  the  blame  of 
evil  tongues.  I,  then,  being  ignorant  of  any  open 
crime  laid  to  my  charge,  will  patiently  endure  re- 
proach, seeing  that  the  Apostle  says,  *  It  is  a  small 
thing  to  be  judged  of  you,  or  of  any  man's  judg- 
ment.' Thirdly,  whilst  I  defend  myself  against 
their  reproaches,  I  will  entreat  that  the  spite  and 
vengeance  of  my  detractors  may  not  add  yet  another 
torment  to  the  wounds  which  I  had  before." 

The  vein  of  satire  is  manifest  under  the  calm  dig- 
nity of  this  passage.  If  Wyclif  ever  sacrificed  his 
dignity  it  was  by  allowing  his  satire  to  run  to  ex- 
cess, and  losing  the  measure  of  invective  whilst 
denouncing  that  which  had  excited  his  indignation. 
Yet  it  is  thoroughly  true,  as  observed  by  Dr. 
Shirley — who  more  than  any  one  man  has  put  this 
generation  on  the  track  of  exact  knowledge  in  regard 
to  the  life  and  character  of  the  Reformer — that 
Wyclif  "  possessed  as  few  ever  did  the  qualities 
which  give  men  power  over  their  fellows.  His 
enemies,"  Dr.  Shirley  adds,  "  ascribed  this  power  to 
the  magic  of  an  ascetic  habit  ;  the  fact  remains 
engraven  upon  every  line  of  his  life." 

Yet  on  this  question  of  asceticism,  and  on  the 
charge  of  his  enemies  that  he  employed  it  for  pur- 
poses of  display,  Wyclif  himself  deserves  to  be  heard. 
"  It  is  far  from  being  true,"  he  says  in  the  book 
already  quoted,  "  that  in  the  company  of  my  follow- 
ers I  obtrude  on  the  eyes  of  simple  men  an  exces- 
sively  abject  and  penitential  air,    together  with    a 


12  John  Wyclif. 


parade  of  virtue.  For  amongst  my  other  faults 
which  give  me  ground  for  alarm  this  is  one  of  the 
greatest,  that,  by  consuming  the  property  of  the 
poor  in  superfluous  food  and  garments,  I  fail  to 
afford  a  pattern  to  others,  whereby  the  light  and 
rule  of  a  holy  life  such  as  I  ought  to  lead  might 
shine  through  my  priestly  guise  in  the  sight  of  the 
congregation.  Nay,  I  confess  with  pain  that  I  eat 
frequently,  greedily,  and  delicately,  leading  a  social 
life ;  and  if  I  were  to  try,  like  a  hypocrite,  to  make 
false  pretence  in  this  regard,  they  who  sit  with  me 
at  table  would  bear  witness  against  me." 

Nothing  was  too  bad  for  Wyclif's  most  spiteful 
enemies  to  say  of  him.  They  called  him  not  merely 
a  glutton  when  he  ate  and  a  hypocrite  when  he 
fasted,  but  a  turncoat,  a  traitor,  an  instrument  of 
the  devil,  a  mirror  of  hypocrites,  a  fabricator  of  lies, 
John  Wicked-believe,  and  Judas  Scarioth.  To  level 
coarse  insults  at  Wyclif  must  have  seemed  to  any  man 
of  refinement  an  odious  thing  to  do  ;  for  in  his  later 
days,  and  probably  also  in  his  youth,  he  was  a  man  of 
feeble  constitution.  The  insistence  of  his  friends  at 
the  St.  Paul's  inquiry,  nearly  eight  years  before  his 
death,  that  he  should  have  the  unusual  indulgence 
of  a  seat  during  his  examination,  certainly  suggests 
a  knowledge  on  their  part  that  he  stood  in  need  of 
such  indulgence ;  and  there  is  a  similar  suggestion 
in  his  anxiety  at  a  much  earlier  age  to  find  parochial 
duties  as  near  as  possible  to  Oxford  and  London. 
Often  enough  the  determining  cause  which  brought 
a  young  man  to  the  university,  and  to  the  clerical 
profession,  in  times  when  there  were  very  few  voca- 


JOHN    WYCLIF. 

THE    DENBIGH    PORTRAIT. 


The  Character  of  Wyclif.  1 3 

tions  for  an  intellectual  mind,  was  his  lack  of  the 
robust  health  and  decided  taste  which  were  necessary 
to  one  who  aimed  at  becoming  either  a  soldier  or  a 
merchant,  or  even  a  manager  of  the  family  estate. 
Wyclif  was  the  son  of  a  gentleman  of  good  means. 
He  probably  owned  or  had  a  claim  upon  the  advow- 
son  of  the  rectory  of  Wycliffe.  But  if  weakness  led 
him  to  adopt  the  life  of  a  clergyman,  ambition  con- 
strained him  to  follow  an  active  and  public  career. 
The  known  facts  of  his  life  chime  in  with  the  hypoth- 
esis that  he  was  always  a  man  of  indifferent  health ; 
and  yet  the  fiery  soul  sustained  him  in  many  a  hard 
battle  with  friars  and  monks,  with  the  English 
hierarchy  and  the  papal  court.  If  we  were  to  judge 
from  his  fighting  attitude  alone,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  consider  him  as  anything  else  than  a  vigorous, 
hardy,  and  indefatigable  man. 

When  Wyclif's  bones  were  torn  from  their  grave 
in  Lutterworth  churchyard,  by  an  English  bishop  at 
the  command  of  a  Roman  pope,  when  they  were 
consumed  to  ashes  and  thrown  into  the  Swift, 
thence  to  be  borne,  as  Fuller  said,  from  brook  to 
river,  and  from  river  to  ocean,  until  the  seeds  of  his 
doctrine  had  sprung  up  in  every  land,  Rome  was 
but  giving  effect  to  a  logically  necessary  conclusion. 
The  position  which  Wyclif  had  taken  up  against  the 
later  teaching  of  the  canons,  was  absolutely  uncom- 
promising. "  From  the  eleventh  century,"  he  prac- 
tically said,  "  the  dogma  of  the  Church  has  been  per- 
verted. The  popes  have  been  wrong,  the  councils 
have  been  wrong,  the  decretals  are  full  of  heresy. 
If  Rome  will  not    unsay  her    false    doctrine,  the 


14  John  Wyclif. 


national  Churches  must  repudiate  her  claim  to  lead 
them.  She  has  built  up  a  crazy  superstructure  on 
the  true  foundation  ;  we  must  sweep  it  away,  and  get 
back  to  the  life  and  words  of  Christ."  To  Rome, 
that  meant  death,  and  for  the  Roman  Curia  it  was  a 
simple  act  of  self-preservation  to  crush  Wyclif  be- 
neath its  censures,  and  to  do  all  that  was  possible  to 
bury  his  record  in  obscurity.  The  necessary  steps 
were  interrupted  by  the  Schism  ;  thirty  years  had 
passed  since  the  death  of  Wyclif  when  the  Councils 
of  Rome  and  Constance  took  the  completion  of  the 
work  in  hand.  It  was  then  too  late.  The  writings 
x  of  the  famous  Doctor  had  passed  into  the  keeping 
of  the  English  and  Bohemian  universities.  The 
scholars  of  that  day  either  concealed  them  or  refused 
to  give  them  to  the  flames.  The  doctrines  of 
Wyclif  had  spread  throughout  England,  Germany, 
and  Austria,  and  neither  the  terrors  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion nor  the  agonies  of  a  thousand  martyrdoms  could 
expel  them  again. 

Nevertheless  Wyclif  and  Wyclifrism  have  been 
under  the  ban  of  Rome  from  that  day  to  this.  No 
doubt  there  must  have  been  a  few  in  every  genera- 
tion, ecclesiastics  and  scholars  for  the  most  part, 
who  would  be  acquainted  with  the  manuscripts  of 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  with  the  main 
facts  of  Wyclif's  life  and  work,  with  the  contempo- 
rary testimony  of  his  friends  and  enemies,  and  with, 
at  any  rate,  some  of  his  writings.  Thomas  Netter, 
who  was  born  before  Wyclif  died,  made  a  collection 
of  papers  relating  to  the  controversies  and  con- 
demnations of  the  heretical  Doctor,  under  the  title 


The  Character  of  Wyclif  1 5 

of  Fasciculi  Zizaniorum  Magistri  Johannis  Wyclif 
cum  Tritico — "  Bundles  of  Tares  .  .  .  together 
with  Wheat."  Would  it  were  possible  to  suppose 
that  Netter,  who  was  confessor  to  the  grandson  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  Wyclif's  patron  and  protector  for 
something  like  fifteen  years,  had  preserved  these 
materials  for  the  purpose  of  justifying  rather  than 
gibbeting  the  last  of  the  English  Schoolmen  !  Such, 
at  all  events,  has  been  their  effect  in  the  long  run. 
Bishop  Bale  of  Ossory,  who  followed  Netter  after  an 
interval  of  a  century,  possessed  and  made  great  use 
of  his  manuscript,  which  he  did  much  to  elucidate  ; 
and  many  others  in  more  recent  times  have  found 
it  exceedingly  serviceable  for  Wyclif's  defence. 
Amongst  these  was  Foxe,  a  friend  of  Bale,  who 
probably  owed  to  the  latter  nearly  all  his  materials 
for  the  account  of  Wyclif  in  the  Acts  and  Monu- 
ments. Throughout  the  later  reformation  period,  and 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  story  of  Wyclif  must 
have  been  familiar  in  England  through  the  works  of 
Foxe,  James,  Thomas  Fuller,  and  others  ;  but  hardly 
any  of  these  writers  knew  more  than  they  had  been 
told  by  Netter,  Bale,  and  the  English  chroniclers. 

A  great  debt  is  due  from  the  present  generation  to 
the  Rev.  John  Lewis,  who,  in  1720,  published  at 
Oxford  his  History  of  the  Life  and  Sufferings  of 
John  Wickliffe,  and  collected  as  many  facts  and 
documents  as  were  at  that  time  within  his  reach. 
That  he  should  now  and  then  have  jumped  a  little 
too  confidently  to  his  conclusions,  and  made  use  of 
one  or  two  works  which  had  not  been  sufficiently 
authenticated,  is  by  no  means  a  matter  of  surprise. 


1 6  John  Wyclif. 


More  than  a  century  later,  Dr.  Shirley  edited  the 
Fasciculi  for  the  Rolls  Series,  adding  an  introduction 
and  notes  which  have  stood  the  test  of  further 
research  with  conspicuous  and  exceptional  success. 
From  that  time  forward  it  has  no  longer  been  possi- 
ble to  reproach  English  historians  and  biographers 
with  ignoring  or  neglecting  the  importance  of 
Wyclif  in  the  annals  of  his  country,  and  espe- 
cially of  the  English  national  Church. 

Much  has  been  done  within  the  past  few  years, 
and  especially  since  the  five-hundredth  anniversary 
of  Wyclif's  death,  to  re-illumine  his  darkened  record, 
and  to  ensure  a  wider  circulation  for  his  principal 
works.  The  disinterested  labours  of  the  Wyclif 
Society,  and  of  a  considerable  number  of  English 
and  German  scholars,  have  gone  far  to  atone  for  a 
long  neglect.  The  time  has  almost  come  when  John 
Wyclif  may  find  a  worthy  and  competent  biographer, 
who  will  be  able  to  set  forth  the  story  of  his  life 
with  a  reasonable  approach  to  finality.  Meanwhile, 
it  may  not  be  unserviceable  to  cast  that  story  in 
a  connected  and  popular  form,  and  at  any  rate  to 
attempt  an  estimate  of  Wyclifs  true  position  in 
history.  Such,  indeed,  has  been  the  aim  of  the 
present  writer,  who  has  sought  to  collect  into  a 
focus  all  that  has  been  accurately  ascertained  or 
felicitously  surmised  concerning  one  of  the  most 
attractive  characters  in  the  later  Middle  Age. 

It  is  impossible  to  feel  at  all  confident  that  the 
true  features  and  character  of  John  Wyclif  are  pre- 
sented   in   any   of  the   portraits   which   have   been 


The  Character  of  Wyclij.  1 7 

handed  down  to  us.  It  would  be  strange  indeed 
if  we  could  trace  back  the  origin  of  even  one  of 
these  portraits  from  the  nineteenth  century  into  the 
fourteenth  without  a  lingering  doubt  on  the  subject 
of  its  authenticity.  Of  the  existing  pictures,  whether 
they  are  based  on  knowledge  or  on  imagination, 
some  half-dozen  appear  worthy  of  attention  ;  and 
it  is  at  any  rate  conceivable,  as  we  look  at  them, 
that  these  should  refer  to  the  same  original.  Allow- 
ing for  differences  of  age  and  aspect,  there  is  a 
certain  family  likeness  running  through  them  all. 

So  far  as  the  dates  can  now  be  ascertained,  the 
oldest  picture  is  a  small  half-length  woodcut  in 
Bale's  Summary  of  the  Famous  Writers  of  Greater 
Britain,  published  in  1548,  more  than  a  hundred  and 
sixty  years  after  Wyclifs  death.  Bale  was  a  con- 
verted monk,  who,  having  been  rewarded  for  his 
labours  and  sufferings  with  the  bishopric  of  Ossory, 
tried  in  vain  to  effect  a  settlement  amongst  the 
"  wild  Irish  "  of  that  see.  He  was  an  indefatiga- 
ble student  and  collector  of  manuscripts.  It  is  to 
him  that  we  owe  the  preservation  of  Netter's  Tares 
of  John  Wyclif  with  Wheat,  and  it  may  well  be  that 
he  had  discovered  in  some  old  copy  of  the  English 
Bible,  or  other  manuscript  of  the  fourteenth  or  fif- 
teenth century,  a  sketch  of  the  Reformer's  face  by  a 
contemporary  hand.  When  we  remember  that  many 
a  valuable  parchment  has  disappeared  from  view 
since  the  antiquaries  of  the  Tudor  and  Stuart  periods 
had  an  opportunity  of  copying  or  quoting  them,  we 
cannot  deny  the  possibility  that  such  a  sketch  may 
have   been   lost   to  sight   whilst   the   copy  survives. 


1 8  John  Wyclif. 


Bale's  picture  is  a  sharp  profile,  turned  to  the  left, 
and  represents  Wyclif  preaching  or  lecturing  from  a 
stone  pulpit,  with  his  right  hand  and  index  finger 
raised  in  front  of  him,  and  his  left  hand  resting  on 
a  closed  book.  He  appears  to  be  about  fifty  years 
old  ;  and  the  sketch  is  very  much  what  a  Tudor 
draughtsman  might  have  produced  from  the  thumb- 
nail of  one  of  Wyclif's  personal  disciples.  The 
same  woodcut  is  transferred  to  A  True' Copy e  of  a 
Prolog,  possibly  the  work  of  Purvey,  first  printed 
in  1550. 

The  painting  lodged  in  the  rectory  of  Wycliff  e-on- 
Tees  by  Dr.  Zouch  (d.  181 5),  and  intrusted  to  the 
charge  of  his  successors  in  the  benefice,  is  said  to  be 
the  work  of  the  Flemish  portrait-painter,  Antonio 
Moro,  who  was  employed  by  Philip  and  Mary  in 
1554,  and  who  subsequently  settled  in  Madrid.  It 
is  unfortunate  that  Dr.  Zouch  did  not  (apparently) 
leave  behind  him  any  precise  information  as  to  the 
history  of  this  picture.  It  would  have  been  interest- 
ing to  know  on  what  evidence  he  vouched  for  it  as 
"  original,"  seeing  that  the  subject  is  not  quite  what 
one  would  have  expected  from  a  painter  who  enjoyed 
the  patronage  of  two  particularly  bigoted  Catholic 
monarchs.  If  this  picture  is  Moro's,  one  would  be 
disposed  to  date  it  before  1554.  Whitaker  suggests 
in  his  History  of  Richmondshire  that  Moro  may 
have  seen  Bale's  woodcut ;  and  he  observes  that  the 
two  portraits  are  sufficiently  alike  to  warrant  the 
suggestion.  The  likeness  cannot  be  called  striking, 
but  it  is  hard  to  say  whence  the  painter  derived 
his  inspiration  if   not  from  the  woodcut.     He  pre- 


The  Character  of  Wyclif.  1 9 

sents  the  Reformer  at  a  more  advanced  age,  though 
somewhat  less  advanced  than  in  what  are  known  as 
the  Dorset  and  Denbigh  portraits.  At  any  rate 
there  is  less  of  an  impression  of  feebleness  than  in 
the  latter  two,  both  of  which  show  Wyclif  leaning 
on  a  staff.  There  is  certainly  a  family  likeness  in 
these  three  pictures.  The  deep-set  eyes,  prominent 
nose,  shrunken  cheeks,  full  grey  beard,  grave  yet 
tender  mouth,  and  slightly  stooped  shoulders  are 
common  to  all.  The  Moro  portrait  was  engraved  by 
Edward  Finden  for  Mr.  John  Murray,  and  published 
by  him  in  1827. 

The  Dorset  canvas,  now  kept  at  Knole  Park,  has 
been  engraved  and  reproduced  more  frequently  than 
any  of  the  rest.  In  this  picture  Wyclif  holds  the 
staff  in  his  right  hand  ;  the  face  is  turned  slightly  to 
his  left,  and  the  beard  divides  by  a  hand's-breadth 
on  the  chest.  Like  the  Denbigh  portrait,  it  is  half- 
length,  whilst  Moro's  is  a  bust.  The  Dorset  (en- 
graved by  George  White)  is  set  in  an  oval  frame, 
with  the  legend:  "  Joannes  Wiclif  S.  T.  P.,  Rector 
de  Lutterworth  |  A  tabula  penes  Nobilissimum  Du- 
cem  Dorsettiae."  The  first  Duke  of  Dorset  died  in 
1765,  and  the  portrait  does  not  seem  to  be  earlier 
than  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Dorset  family,  it 
may  be  mentioned,  were  in  possession  of  the  Groby 
(Leicestershire)  estates  ;  and  the  portrait  of  course 
professes  to  represent  the  Reformer  as  he  appeared 
in  the  last  year  or  two  of  his  tenure  of  the  rectory 
of  Lutterworth.  There  is  another  engraving  of  the 
same  picture  signed  by  Jan  Vanhaecken. 

Of  the  Denbigh  portrait  we  have  a  fine  engraving 


20  jfohn  Wyclif. 


(fronting  the  title-page  of  Lewis's  Life  of  Wyclif) 
"  by  James  Eittler,  from  a  drawing  by  W.  Skelton, 
taken  from  a  picture  in  the  possession  of  the  Earl  of 
Denbigh."  A  copy  of  the  portrait  hangs  in  Lutter- 
worth Rectory,  and  another  (by  Kingsby  ?)  in  the 
hall  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford.  In  this,  as  in  the 
Dorset  picture,  the  right  hand  holds  a  staff ;  but  the 
left  hand  rests  upon  a  book,  the  face  turns  to  its 
right,  and  the  beard  is  not  divided. 

A  strangely  characteristic  portrait  is  preserved  in 
Queen's  College,  Cambridge, —  a  half-length,  face 
turned  slightly  to  the  left,  age  about  fifty  or  fifty- 
five,  vigorous  and  somewhat  aggressive  in  attitude. 
It  approaches  more  nearly  to  the  type  of  Bale's 
woodcut  than  to  that  of  the  three  portraits  last 
mentioned.  A  mezzotint  engraving  in  an  oval  frame 
was  prepared  by  Richard  Houston  for  Rolt's  Lives 
of  the  Reformers,  1759,  with  the  following  inscrip- 
tion :  "  Johannes  Wickliffe.  Obijt  A  :  1384.  A  Tab- 
ula in  Coll.  Reg.  Cantab."  One  could  almost  imagine 
the  "  regius  clericus  "  in  his  full  strength  and  dignity, 
just  about  the  time  when  John  of  Gaunt  was  coming 
to  close  grips  with  the  wealthy  English  prelates, 
coolly  shaping  his  lips  to  whistle  away  the  first  angry 
criticisms  of  the  friars. 

In  the  Department  of  Prints  and  Drawings  at  the 
British  Museum  there  are  a  few  cognate  engravings, 
of  which  the  best  and  the  original  is  that  of  H. 
Hondius,  reproduced  in  the  present  volume.  This 
print  bears  the  inscription  :  "  Ioannes  Wiclefus  An- 
glus,"  and  is  entered  in  Bromley's  Catalogue  with  the 
date  1599.     It  is  in  fact  one  of  the  series  included  in 


The  Character  of  Wyclif.  2 1 

Verheiden's  Prczstantium  .  .  .  Theologorum  .  .  . 
Effigies,  published  in  1602.  Evidently  the  atti- 
tude, face,  hair,  and  details  of  dress  are  the  same  in 
the  Cambridge  portrait  and  the  engraving  of  Hon- 
dius.  One  is  simply  a  variation  upon  the  other ; 
and  if  a  guess  may  be  hazarded  without  knowing 
the  history  of  the  Queen's  College  portrait,  I  should 
say  that  the  latter  is  based  upon  Hondius. 

A  meretricious  French  print,  by  B.  Picart,  dated 
171 3,  represents  a  framed  picture  of  Wyclif  sus- 
pended by  a  rope  between  two  pillars  in  front  of 
a  tomb,  and  apparently  fanning  the  flames  in  which 
his  books  are  being  consumed.  There  is  also  an 
engraved  plate,  bearing  the  title  of  The  Parallel 
Reformers,  and  drawing  a  comparison  between 
Whitfield  and  Wyclif,  with  a  not  very  faithful  re- 
production of  the  Hondius  engraving.  Bromley 
mentions  two  other  prints,  "  in  Boissard,"  and  by 
Des  Rochers,  which  I  have  not  seen,  and  these 
probably  exhaust  the  list  of  Wyclif  pictures,  or 
at  any  rate  of  distinct  types  and  noteworthy 
variations. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   SEETHING   OF   EUROPE. 


ERHAPS  the  fairest  test  of 
the  true  greatness  and  import- 
ance of  any  man  who  has 
played  his  part  in  the  shaping 
of  history  may  be  found  in  the 
disposition  of  his  admirers  to 
consider,  not  merely  what  he 
did  for  his  country  and  his 
age,  but  also  what  his  circum- 
stances and  antecedents  had  previously  done  for  him. 
It  is  a  truism  to  say  that  every  man,  great  or  small,  is 
a  product  of  the  conditions  which  surround  him  ;  but 
only  when  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face  with  an 
original  and  creative  mind  do  we  think  it  worth 
while  to  ask  how  this  mind  was  itself  created — how, 
in  fact,  the  moulder  of  one  generation  had  been 
moulded  by  the  generations  which  preceded  him. 

Few  men  better  deserve  or  more  justly  claim  such 
treatment  than  John  Wyclif,  who  was  unquestion- 

22 


TYPHIS 
3  k  jji    fcssp 

•^g^g  a 

*m^^^  /^r^3e 

-  J^^a^^^fSx'fcvlw 

Hill 

la 

JS^lSwJM 

JOHN   WYCLIF. 
(from  ball's      summarium.  ") 


The  Seething  of  Europe.  23 

ably  a  moulder  of  men  and  a  shaper  of  history. 
Wyclif  stood  at  the  parting  of  the  ways  which  led 
from  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  revival  of  learning  and 
letters.  He  was  himself  the  main  connecting  link  V 
between  the  intellectual  hardihood  of  the  School- 
men and  the  definite  revolt  of  the  Teutonic  world 
from  Rome.  Essentially  throughout  his  life  a 
secular  English  clergyman,  still  his  early  mental 
standpoint  was  on  the  continent  of  Europe  rather 
than  in  England.  Rome  had  so  long  been  the 
metropolis  of  religion,  as  the  French  universities  had 
been  the  capitals  of  scholastic  theology  and  law, 
that  many  if  not  most  of  Wyclif's  predecessors  in 
the  long  struggle  for  the  emancipation  of  human 
thought  had  lived  and  died  on  the  continent.  The 
time  was  at  hand  for  the  English  Church  and  the 
English  State  to  break  away  from  their  foreign  tram- 
mels ;  but  a  series  of  mighty  efforts  was  needed  in 
both  cases,  and  it  was  only  with  the  eye  of  faith 
that  Wyclif  could  see  the  chains  of  Romanism  and 
feudalism  finally  snapped. 

It  must  therefore  greatly  assist  us  to  arrive  at  a 
fair  understanding  of  the  problems  in  which  John 
Wyclif  was  concerned  if  we  ask  ourselves  in  the  first 
place  what  was  the  condition  of  Europe  in  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries,  what  were  the  rela- 
tions between  the  Papacy  and  the  different  European 
governments,  and  especially  what  effect  our  constant 
wars  with  France  would  naturally  have  upon  our 
relations  with  the  popes  at  Avignon.  Narrowing  the 
inquiry  from  this  point,  we  may  note  the  internal  con- 
dition of  England,  having  particular  regard  to  the 


24  John  Wyclif. 


national  character  of  the  English  Church,  the  attitude 
of  the  monks  and  friars  towards  those  whom  they 
denounced  as  innovators,  and  the  phases  of  life  and 
thought  in  the  university  of  Oxford,  where  Wyclif 
for  the  most  part  lived,  and  to  which  he  was  always 
devotedly  attached. 

After  the  breaking  up  of  the  vast  empire  of 
Charles  the  Great,  the  continent  of  Europe  had 
come  to  be  parcelled  out  into  a  large  number  of 
kingdoms,  duchies,  counties,  principalities,  and  re- 
publics, few  of  them  possessing  any  exceptional 
importance,  whilst  the  majority  were  quite  insignifi- 
cant. The  most  powerful  overlordships,  apart  from 
that  of  the  popes,  were  the  Holy  Roman  Empire — 
extending  from  the  North  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean, 
and  dividing  the  kingdom  of  Hungary  and  the 
Polish  dukedoms  from  western  Europe — the  Byzan- 
tine Empire,  the  kingdom  of  France,  and  the  States 
of  the  Spanish  and  Italian  peninsulas.  Over  each 
and  all  of  these,  the  popes  had  claimed  not  merely 
a  spiritual  but  a  political  supremacy. 

From  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  to  the  close  of 
the  fourteenth  century — to  speak  without  absolute 
precision — the  great  central  empire  of  Europe  was 
gradually  shrinking  down  to  proportions  roughly 
corresponding  to  those  of  Germany  and  Austria 
(proper)  at  the  present  moment.  On  the  west  and 
south-west  this  shrinkage  was  especially  noteworthy. 
Burgundy  had  enlarged  her  borders ;  Switzerland 
had  already  adopted  the  federal  republicanism 
which  she  has  maintained  ever  since ;  the  Low 
Countries,  Savoy,  and  most  of  northern  Italy,  had 


The  Seething  of  Europe.  2  5 

fallen  away.  The  strength  of  feudalism  had  begun 
to  wane ;  for  a  long  time  there  was  the  name  of 
empire  without  an  imperial  .head  or  bond.  All  that 
was  not  German,  but  only  conventionally  Roman, 
tended  to  separate  from  the  solid  core,  whilst  the 
true  Germany  and  the  Teutonic  spirit  remained,  as 
they  had  always  been,  the  chief  rival  and  obstacle  of 
the  Papacy  on  the  continent. 

The  kingdom  of  Castile,  in  which  Leon  had  been 
absorbed,  was  steadily  forcing  the  Moors  of  Granada 
upon  the  Mediterranean  shore.  But  before  the  ex- 
pulsion of  Africa  from  Spain  was  completed,  Asia 
had  begun  to  overflow  into  the  other  extremity  of 
southern  Europe,  and  the  Byzantine  Empire  became 
the  mere  shadow  of  its  former  greatness.  The  Cru- 
saders had  but  irritated  and  provoked  the  vast 
nomadic  fanaticism  by  which  western  Asia  and 
northern  Africa  were  penetrated  and  dominated. 
The  Christians  had  gained  some  slight  successes  on 
the  Syrian  coast,  but  they  could  not  long  maintain 
their  footing.  The  king  of  Jerusalem,  the  prince  of 
Antioch,  the  counts  of  Jaffa,  Nablous,  and  Edessa, 
with  other  petty  local  potentates,  were  brushed 
aside  by  sultans  scarcely  less  petty  than  themselves, 
and  the  Mahomedan  flood  swept  strongly  and 
steadily  onward  until,  at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  Ottoman  Turks  had  mastered  almost  the 
whole  of  Asia  Minor.  Half  a  century  later  they  had 
crossed  the  Bosphorus  into  Europe. 

This  was  a  disturbing  element,  not  to  say  an  abid- 
ing cause  of  panic,  for  the  nations  of  the  south  and 
west  ;  and  the  fact  must  enter  into  every  considera- 


26  John  Wyclif. 


tion  of  the  state  of  Europe  in  the  fourteenth  century. 
The  Papacy  and  Chivalry  between  them  were  respon- 
sible for  the  crusades,  and  it  was  on  the  popes  and 
barons  that  the  worst  immediate  results  of  the  irrup- 
tion were  to  fall.  Apart  from  the  rash  aggressions 
of  the  earlier  crusades,  which  clearly  (to  us  in  these 
days)  involved  the  ultimate  rebound  of  the  Turk 
into  Europe,  the  light-hearted  wickedness  of  the 
fourth  crusade  was  enough  in  itself  to  account  for 
all  that  followed.  The  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  the 
Count  of  Flanders,  and  the  host  of  adventurers  in 
their  train,  presumably  stirred  to  religious  enthusi- 
asm against  the  infidel,  devoted  themselves  to  two 
years  of  ravage  and  plunder  in  Christian  Europe. 
They  pillaged  Constantinople,  usurped  the  Empire 
of  Byzantium,  and  destroyed  the  human  barrier 
against  barbarism,  which  needed  to  be  strengthened 
by  every  conceivable  means.  This  was  in  1 202-1 204. 
The  Byzantine  Greeks  regained  their  empire  in  1261  ; 
but  by  this  time  the  natural  guards  and  sentinels  of 
Europe  were  not  only  demoralised  beyond  recovery, 
but  also  completely  alienated  from  the  Church  and 
the  States  of  the  west. 

It  had  been  proved  by  this  expedition,  and  it  was 
confirmed  on  many  occasions  within  the  next  cen- 
tury and  a  half,  that  the  descent  was  easy  from 
militant  chivalry  to  wholesale  rapine.  In  the  four- 
teenth century  it  had  become  apparent  that  Chivalry, 
the  Feudalism  on  which  it  was  based,  and  the  Papacy 
which  had  played  into  the  hands  of  both,  were  in- 
volved in  a  common  catastrophe.  The  popes  had 
lost  their  hegemony,  the  barons  were   losing  their 


The  Seething  of  Europe.  27 

feudal  authority,  and  at  the  moment  of  greatest 
need  there  was  no  chance  of  a  combination  of  forces 
such  as  would  have  sufficed  to  drive  back  the 
Turkish  hordes.  Edward  III.  proposed  it  to  the 
French  king,  and  Pope  John  proposed  it  to  more 
than  one  of  the  monarchs  ;  but  it  was  too  late.  The 
seething  of  Europe  had  begun.  The  seventy  years' 
exile  of  the  popes  at  Avignon,  'the  hundred  years' 
war  between  England  and  France,  the  desperate 
civil  wars  in  both  those  countries,  were  already  fore- 
doomed and  inevitable.  The  establishment  of  the 
new  order  in  western  Christendom  could  not  come 
to  pass — as  the  history  of  the  world  was  being  devel- 
oped— save  at  the  cost  of  liberty  and  civilisation  in 
the  Eastern  Empire. 

Whilst  the  Turk  was  forcing  the  gates  of  Europe, 
Calais  was  sacked,  and  the  battles  of  Cr6cy  and 
Poitiers  were  fought  and  won.  Whilst  the  infidels 
overran  Thrace  and  closed  round  the  devoted  city  of 
Constantinople,  two  of  the  most  powerful  Christian 
nations  were  exhausting  their  strength  in  wars  which 
had  but  the  slightest  shadow  of  justification.  The 
delusive  treaty  of  Br£tigny  (1360),  which  coincided 
in  date  with  the  capture  of  Adrianople,  gave  to 
England  the  provinces  of  Gascony,  Guienne,  Poitou, 
Saintonge,  Angoumais,  and  Limousin,  with  Calais 
and  Ponthieu  in  the  north-east ;  and,  though  much 
of  the  territory  was  lost  again  before  the  reign  of 
Edward  had  closed,  France  was  convulsed  by  invasion 
and  civil  war  for  another  sixty  years. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  Europe  during  the  life 
of  Wyclif  and  of  the  youngest  of  his  disciples.     He 


28  John   Wyclif. 


preached  to  ears  which  were  never  free  from  ghastly 
records  of  slaughter,  and  to  souls  perpetually  startled 
by  the  portents  of  an  eventful  epoch. 

The  story  of  the  Papacy  itself  in  the  fourteenth 
century  is  as  important  and  striking  as  that  of  any 
of  the  larger  European  States.  The  State  of  the 
Church  had  been  built  up  by  successive  papal  assump- 
tions on  the  basis  of  religious  authority  perverted 
into  secular  feudalism,  and  by  means  of  extravagant 
tolls  levied  upon  the  religious  devotion  of  Christen- 
dom. The  dramatic  surrender  of  the  Emperor 
Henry  at  Canossa  in  1077,  followed  by  the  bequest 
of  the  Countess  of  Modena  a  few  years  later,  set  the 
coping-stone  on  a  principality  which  then  extended 
from  the  Lombard  kingdom  of  Naples  to  the  banks 
of  the  river  Po.  The  subjection  of  England  by 
Innocent  III.,  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  was  as  thorough  in  its  way  as  that  of  Ger- 
many by  Gregory  VII. ;  for  John  not  only  resigned 
his  crown  and  kingdom  into  the  hands  of  the  papal 
legate,  but  received  them  back  in  the  character  of  a 
tributary  vassal.  And,  though  John's  cleverness 
overreached  itself,  yet  he  doubtless  saw  clearly 
enough,  as  other  monarchs  saw  before  and  afterwards, 
that  resistance  to  the  Pope  meant  a  paralysing  isola- 
tion, whilst  submission  to  him  brought  effective  aid 
and  solid  advantages.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Innocent 
actively  assisted  the  English  King  against  his  subjects 
from  the  moment  when  his  contumacy  came  to  an  end. 

The  Italian  Lothario  Conti,  known  to  us  as  Inno- 
cent III.,  raised  the  assumptions  and  usurpations  of 
Rome  to  the  highest  pitch.     He  imposed  submission 


The  Seething  of  Europe.  29 

on  Castile,  Portugal,  and  Arragon,  dictated  to  Philip 
Augustus  of  France,  and  even  received  the  spiritual 
homage  of  the  Eastern  Empire  (from  the  usurper 
Baldwin),  and  of  the  kings  of  Bulgaria  and  Armenia. 
"  In  each  of  the  three  leading  objects  which  Rome 
had  pursued,"  says  Hallam,  "  independent  sover- 
eignty, supremacy  over  the  Christian  Church,  control 
over  the  princes  of  the  earth,  it' was  the  fortune  of 
this  pontiff  to  conquer." 

Precisely  in  the  fulness  of  its  power  and  authority, 
the  Papacy  began  to  work  its  own  downfall.  Its 
ever  increasing  and  accumulated  assumptions  were 
extended  from  the  reigning  monarch  to  the  humblest 
of  his  subjects,  from  national  and  international  rela- 
tions to  the  bed  and  board  of  every  individual  in 
every  State  of  Christendom,  until  at  last  the  very 
nausea  of  oppression  produced  inevitable  revolt. 
Christianity  would  have  been  repudiated  and  rejected 
by  the  nations  of  Europe  if  they  had  not  distin- 
guished between  the  faith  itself  and  the  guardians  of 
the  faith  who  had  violated  it.  For  not  only  religion, 
but  even  morality  and  the  sanctions  of  society  were 
made  to  depend  on  the  subtleties  of  fallible  men, 
who,  whilst  discrediting  the  intellect,  applied  their 
own  imperfect  intellects  to  the  definition  of  good 
and  evil  for  their  fellow-creatures. 

And  this  was  not  by  any  means  the  worst  of  the 
spiritual  assumption,  for  the  Pope  claimed  power, 
after  laying  down  the  law  of  good  and  evil,  to  dis- 
pense men  from  the  obligation  to'  do  good,  and  to 
indulge  them  in  the  commission  of  evil.  Pope  Inno- 
cent, and  doctors  of  the  Church  like  St.  Thomas 


30  John  Wyclif. 


Aquinas,  declared  that  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  in  the 
plenitude  of  his  power,  might  lawfully  dispense  with 
the  law — a  claim  which  is  not  set  up  for  the  Deity 
himself,  nor  by  nature,  as  interpreted  by  their  works. 
Obstructions  may  divert  the  spiritual  and  physical 
laws,  but  only  as  proceeding  from  a  different  source, 
and  from  a  cause  external  to  the  law.  When  the 
authority  which  had  promulgated  the  law  of  right 
and  wrong  was  found  dispensing  with  the  right  and 
selling  indulgences  for  the  wrong,  it  was  no  longer 
regarded  as  a  lawgiver.  Of  necessity,  and  with  an 
impassioned  conviction  of  truth,  devout  men  consid- 
ered it  as  an  obstruction  to  moral  law. 

Before  the  fourteenth  century  dawned  this  con- 
viction had  penetrated  many  a  thoughtful  mind,  and 
the  wonder  is  that  such  a  clear  and  cogent  truth, 
put  forward  by  Wyclif  and  his  friends  with  logical 
completeness,  should  not  have  won  the  battle  of 
Reformation  at  least  a  century  and  a  half  before  it 
was  actually  won.  But,  in  point  of  fact,  the  reforma- 
tion of  religion,  in  England  as  in  Germany,  passed 
through  several  phases.  The  awakening  of  the 
popular  conscience  was  one  of  these  phases ;  but  it 
could  not  reach  its  full  development  apart  from  the 
political  rejection  of  the  papal  assumptions,  the 
arbitrary  suppression  of  the  monastic  Orders,  and  the 
legislative  conversion  of  the  national  Church.  All 
these  things  were  on  their  way,  and  Wyclif  brought 
them  as  near  to  realisation  as  any  man  could  have 
done  in  the  fourteenth  century.  But  the  hour  had 
not  struck,  and  the  instruments  were  not  all  ready 
to  hand. 


The  Seething  of  Europe.  3 1 

It  is  true  that  the  movement  in  England,  which 
Wyclif  inspired  and  led,  came  nearer  to  success  than 
has  sometimes  been  supposed.  The  suppression  of 
monasteries  actually  began  in  the  generation  after  his 
death.  Parliament  had  declared  boldly  against  the  V' 
Pope  ;  and  if  the  Commons  had  been  made  of 
sterner  stuff — if  they  had  realised  their  strength,  and 
had  not  been  driven  into  panic  by  the  revolt  of  the 
peasants,  they  might,  even  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
have  moulded  the  national  Church  on  the  nation's 
will.  There  was  indeed  no  discontinuity  in  the  pro- 
test which  our  ancestors  raised  against  the  innova- 
tions of  Rome.  Wyclif  drew  a  line  at  the  close  of 
the  first  Christian  millennium,  and  declared  that 
after  the  thousandth  year  of  Christ  Satan  was  loosed, 
and  Antichrist  was  enthroned  in  the  pontifical  chair. 
At  any  rate  from  the  eleventh  century  there  was 
never  a  time  in  England  when  the  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral pretensions  of  the  Popes  were  not  categorically 
opposed.  The  Schoolmen  headed  the  protest  on 
the  intellectual  side.  Lanfranc  complained  of  Ber- 
engar  that  he  wished  to  ignore  the  sacred  sanctions, 
and  to  have  recourse  to  mere  logic  and  argument. 
This  was  the  point  at  which  Scholasticism  had  its 
origin  ;  the  protest  of  the  Schoolmen  was  against 
the  intolerable  claim  of  Rome  that  her  traditional 
sanctions  and  authorities  should  impose  a  limit  upon 
intellect,  morals,  and  individual  conscience. 

And  if  the  popular  mind,  and  the  minds  of  a  few 
scholars  and  preachers  here  and  there,  were  outraged 
and  alienated  by  the  spiritual  usurpations  of  the 
Papacy,  its  temporal  and  political  assumptions  were 


2,2  John  Wyclif. 


resisted  in  each  successive  generation,  however  inter- 
mittently, by  the  monarchs  and  statesmen  of  the 
day.  Henry  II.  and  John  both  measured  swords 
against  the  enemy  of  their  country.  Each  of  them, 
indeed,  found  his  blade  too  short,  and  extricated 
himself  from  his  difficulty  by  a  politic  compromise. 
It  may  even  be  argued  that  the  payment  of  tribute 
from  12 13  to  1333  rather  assisted  than  hindered  the 
growth  of  the  national  independence,  in  an  age  when 
the  temporal  power  of  Rome  was  at  its  zenith.  The 
tribute  did  not  prevent  Henry  III.  and  Edward  I. 
from  continuing  the  struggle.  A  like  combative  spirit 
was  displayed  by  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  The 
extreme  personal  humiliation  of  the  Emperor  Henry 
IV.  and  Frederick  Barbarossa  merely  point  us  to 
two  conspicuous  instances  of  German  resistance. 

Up  to  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  these 
contests  of  the  civil  against  the  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity, and  of  the  national  spirit  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  Rome,  appeared  to  have  little  practical  or 
permanent  result.  It  was  reserved  for  France  to  give 
the  Papacy  its  first  effectual  check,  and  to  stagger  it 
by  a  blow  from  which  it  never  entirely  recovered. 

Benedict  Cajetano,  Pope  Boniface  VIII.,  was  the 
most  capable  man  and  the  most  politically  aggressive 
pontiff  who  had  sat  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  since 
Innocent  III.  ;  but  he  carried  the  policy  of  his  pre- 
decessor to  a  wild  extreme,  and  invited  the  active 
hostility  by  which  he  was  speedily  overwhelmed.  It 
is  true  that  in  Edward  I.  of  England  and  Philip  the 
Fair  of  France  he  had  encountered  two  monarchs  of 
more  than  ordinary  mettle,  and  that  a  conflict  with 


The  Seething  of  Europe.  33 

one  or  both  of  them  was  virtually  inevitable.  As  it 
happened,  he  had  to  fight  them  both  ;  and  the  man- 
ner in  which  he  launched  his  lightnings  and  hurled 
his  thunderbolts  showed  with  how  light  a  heart  this 
ill-fated  Pope  sought  to  assert  his  authority  as  the 
vice-gerent  of  God  on  earth. 

Revolt  against  Rome  was  ripe  in  every  sense. 
She  had  not  only  encroached  on  the  civil  govern- 
ments, but  also  harassed  and  offended  the  hierarchies 
of  the  national  Churches.  By  her  interdicts,  excom- 
munications, and  depositions,  she  had  exasperated 
monarchs  and  peoples  alike.  She  had  asserted  the 
rights  of  mandate  and  investiture,  and  frequently 
overruled  the  elections  of  metropolitans  and  bishops, 
ignoring  the  claims  of  the  clergy  as  well  as  of  the 
Crown.  She  had  exacted  large  sums  of  money  in 
the  shape  of  annata  on  promotions  and  translations, 
of  direct  levies  from  the  Churches,  and  of  tribute 
from  the  monarchs.  She  had  set  up  the  papal  Curia 
as  a  jurisdiction  external  to  every  country,  yet 
claiming  supremacy  in  all;  and  she  authorised  her 
legates  to  override  the  decisions  of  the  hierarchies, 
and  even  the  provincial  councils  of  the  national 
Churches.  When,  on  the  other  hand,  clergy,  monks, 
or  friars  abused  their  privileges  to  the  manifest 
detriment  of  the  State,  Rome  almost  invariably 
encouraged  her  subordinates  to  defy  and  resist  the 
civil  power,  claiming  for  them  both  a  moral  and  a 
material  immunity  against  the  jurisdictions  of  the 
land  in  which  they  lived. 

The  vast  possessions  of  the  clergy  and  religious 
Orders,  especially  after  the  new  corporations  of  friars 


34  John  Wyclif. 


had  forsworn  their  original  vows  of  poverty,  excited 
the  alarm,  not  to  say  the  cupidity  of  the  monarchs, 
and  whetted  the  edge  of  their  hostility  to  Rome. 
England,  France,  the  Empire,  and  Castile  had  at 
different  times  taken  measures  to  curtail  the  growing 
evil.  In  England  alone,  it  was  found  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  I.,  something  like  one  half  of  the  knights' 
fees,  which  had  contributed  to  the  revenues  of  the 
Crown  under  William  the  Norman,  had  passed  into 
the  hands  of  the  clergy  and  monks.  In  order  to 
check  further  diversions  of  the  national  wealth  into 
the  coffers  of  the  Church,  the  Statute  of  Mortmain 
(1279)  forbade  the  alienation  of  estates  to  religious 
corporations,  under  pain  of  forfeiture.  But  the 
statutes  of  those  days  did  not  grind  very  small,  and 
the  mischief  went  on. 

Meanwhile  the  English  Church,  from  motives 
amongst  which  we  may  fairly  include  those  of  na- 
tional independence  and  patriotism,  had  paid  sub- 
sidies from  their  growing  revenues  to  the  crippled 
resources  of  the  State.  This  had  been  done  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  III.,  and  was  continued  in  the  reign  of 
Edward,  the  Church  virtually  admitting  its  liability 
to  taxation,  but  making  an  occasional  stand  in  regard 
to  the  amount.  Towards  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century  the  King  was  badly  in  want  of  money,  and 
he  was  not  very  particular  as  to  the  means  of  raising 
it.  He  made  heavier  demands  upon  the  clergy,  to 
the  extent  of  one  fifth  and  even  one  half  of  their 
income,  until  in  self-defence  they  denied  their  lia- 
bility altogether.  Edward  threatened  to  confiscate 
their   property,  and    partly  carried   out  his  threat ; 


The  Seething  of  Europe.  35 

whereupon  the  clergy  appealed  to  the  Pope,  con- 
tending that  their  aids  were  due  to  Rome  alone. 

The  same  struggle  was  proceeding  at  the  same 
time  upon  the  continent.  Boniface  had  begun  his 
pontificate  by  calling  on  the  monarchs  of  Europe  to 
settle  their  differences  by  referring  them  to  his  ar- 
bitrament. The  sincerity  of  this  plausible  injunction 
may  be  measured  by  the  fact  that  he  was  soon  offer- 
ing, for  his  own  purposes,  to  dethrone  the  Emperor 
Albert  and  to  give  his  crown  to  Charles  of  Valois. 
In  this  and  other  matters  the  Pope  laid  himself 
open  to  the  suspicion  that  his  aim  was  not  so  much 
to  maintain  peace  in  Christendom  as  to  fish  in 
troubled  waters. 

The  trial  of  strength  between  Boniface  and  Philip 
endured  throughout  the  seven  years  of  that  fatal 
pontificate.  The  first  blow  was  struck  by  Boniface, 
who  in  peremptory  language  required  the  French 
and  English  kings  to  abstain  from  laying  any  taxa- 
tions whatever  upon  the  clergy.  This  was  not  the 
only  form  of  papal  interference,  but  it  aggravated 
and  governed  all  the  rest.  The  challenge  was  un- 
mistakable, and  Philip  took  it  up  at  once.  He  re- 
fused to  obey  the  Pope,  who  then  issued  his  bull 
Clericis  laicos,  declaring  in  general  terms,  for  the 
benefit  of  Philip,  Edward,  and  anyone  else  whom  it 
might  concern,  that  monarchs  had  no  right  to  exact 
taxes  or  aids  from  the  clergy,  even  in  the  shape  of 
voluntary  grants,  without  the  sanction  of  the  Holy 
Father.  Philip's  answer  was  to  prohibit  the  export 
of  gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  food,  and  the  muni- 
tions of  war — a  prohibition  which  of  course  included 


36  John  Wyclif. 


X 


the  aids  of  the  clergy  and  the  contributions  of  the 
faithful.  Placed  thus  between  two  injunctions,  the 
clergy  ended  by  paying  to  the  nearest  creditor ; 
the  Kings  obtained  their  subsidies,  and  the  Pope  was 
left  to  starve. 

The  quarrel  continued  with  varying  fortunes.  An 
award  delivered  by  Boniface  in  an  arbitration  be- 
tween Philip  and  his  enemies,  being  regarded  in 
Paris  as  manifestly  unjust  and  prejudiced,  was  torn 
up  by  the  Count  d'Artois  in  the  King's  presence. 
The  "  little  bull  "  of  1300,  in  which  Boniface  wrote — 
"  We  desire  you  to  know  that  you  are  subject  to  us  in 
temporal  as  well  as  in  spiritual  affairs,"  was  ordered 
to  be  publicly  burned.  The  Pope  stormed  and 
threatened.  Philip  threw  himself  on  the  support  of 
the  States-General,  which  was  apparently  the  first 
assembly  of  its  kind  in  France,  summoned  with- 
in forty  years  of  the  first  English  Parliament ;  and 
the  three  orders  of  nobles,  clergy,  and  commons 
addressed  three  distinct  memorials  to  the  Pope,  even 
the  clergy  refusing  to  admit  the  temporal  supremacy 
of  Rome.  Nevertheless  some  of  the  bishops  obeyed 
the  summons  of  Boniface  to  a  council  which  was  to 
consider  and  determine  upon  the  offences  of  their 
King ;  whereupon  Philip  promptly  confiscated  their 
property,  and  took  occasion  at  the  same  time  to 
throw  upon  the  absentees  the  growing  scandal  and 
odium  of  the  Inquisition. 

By  openly  claiming  the  temporal  supremacy, 
Boniface  had  gone  too  far  to  retreat.  Backed  by 
his  most  uncompromising  supporters,  and  impelled 
by  the  complaints  of  the  French  bishops,  he  drew  up 


The  Seething  of  Europe,  3  7 

the  famous  bull,  Unam  sanctam  (June,  1302),  which 
brought  to  a  point  the  infatuated  and  fatal  claim  of 
universal  temporal  dominion.  The  Church,  he 
declared,  is  one  holy  and  undivided  body,  having  but 
a  single  head.  "The  spiritual  and  the  temporal 
sword  are  alike  under  the  control  of  the  Church ;  the 
latter  must  be  employed  by  those  who  wear  it  on  be- 
half of  the  Church,  and  the  former  by  the  Church  it- 
self— the  former  wielded  by  a  priestly  hand,  the  latter 
by  the  hand  of  monarchs  and  soldiers,  though 
only  at  the  summons  and  under  the  sanction  of  the 
priest.  Moreover,  the  one  sword  ought  to  be  sub- 
ject to  the  other,  and  the  temporal  to  the  spiritual 
authority.  .  .  .  Furthermore  "  [or  perhaps  "  from 
henceforth," porro]  "we  declare,  state,  lay  down  and 
pronounce,  that  it  is  an  indispensable  article  of  faith 
for  every  human  being  that  he  is  a  subject  of  the 
Roman  pontiff." 

No  words  could  be  more  precise  or  definite  than 
these.  Their  chief  effect  was  to  seal  the  doom  of 
Boniface,  and  to  explode  the  claim  of  Rome  to  any 
kind  of  temporal  sovereignty  outside  the  States  of 
the  Church.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months  Philip 
was  excommunicated,  Boniface  was  arraigned  before 
the  French  Estates,  the  legitimacy  of  his  election 
was  solemnly  impugned,  his  heresies  were  denounced, 
appeal  was  made  from  him  to  a  new  and  legitimate 
Pope,  and  this  appeal  was  endorsed  by  the  States- 
General,  by  a  majority  of  the  secular  clergy,  by  the 
religious  Orders,  and  by  the  University  of  Paris. 
Philip  was  determined  to  lose  nothing  for  want  of 
audacity.     He  sent  his  avocat-royal,  with  the  two 


38  John  Wyclif. 


\ 


Cardinals  Colonna  who  had  previously  taken  refuge 
in  Paris,  to  seize  the  person  of  the  Pope  at  Anagni ; 
and,  though  Boniface  was  rescued  and  conveyed  to 
Rome,  he  died  a  few  days  later  from  the  shock 
of  his  humiliation.  And  so  the  saying  of  the  ex- 
Pope  Celestine,  whom  Boniface  had  compelled  to 
resign,  and  afterwards  imprisoned,  was  fulfilled : 
"  This  cardinal,  who  stole  like  a  fox  into  the  chair 
of  St.  Peter,  will  have  the  reign  of  a  lion  and  the 
death  of  a  dog." 

"  Imprisoned,  insulted,  deprived  eventually  of  life 
by  the  violence  of  Philip,  a  prince  excommunicated, 
and  who  had  gone  all  lengths  in  defying  and  despis- 
ing the  papal  jurisdiction,  Boniface,"  says  Hallam, 
"  had  every  claim  to  be  avenged  by  the  inheritors  of 
the  same  spiritual  dominion.  When  Benedict  XI. 
rescinded  the  bulls  of  his  predecessor,  and  admitted 
Philip  the  Fair  to  communion  without  insisting  on 
any  concessions,  he  acted  perhaps  prudently,  but 
gave  a  fatal  blow  to  the  temporal  authority  at 
Rome." 

Blow  after  blow  was  given  to  that  authority.  On 
the  death  of  Boniface  the  cardinals  had  hastily  elected 
Benedict  XI.,  who  died  within  the  year.  The  next 
pope  was  Philip's  nominee,  and  he  transferred  the 
headquarters  of  the  Papacy  to  Avignon.  There,  for 
seventy-three  years,  seven  popes,*  all  Frenchmen, 


*  1305,  Clement  V.;  1316,  John  XXII.;  1334,  Benedict  XII.; 
1342,  Clement  VI.;  1352,  Innocent  VI.;  1362,  Urban  V.;  1371, 
Gregory  XI.  Gregory  returned  to  Rome  in  1378,  and  died  there  in 
the  same  year,  being  succeeded  by  Urban  VI.  at  Rome  and  Clement 
VII.  at  Avignon. 


The  Seething  of  Europe. 


39 


with  a  French  majority  in  the  College  of  Cardinals, 
abode  under  the  shelter  of  the  kings  of  France. 
Rome  herself,  meanwhile,  was  successively  courted 
and  almost  won  by  Ludwig  of  Bavaria  and  the  tri- 
bune Rienzi ;  and  throughout  western  Christendom 
the  minds  of  the  faithful  were  profoundly  disturbed, 
not  to  say  unstrung,  by  what  seemed  to  be  the  irre- 
parable ruin  of  the  Vicars  of  Christ. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  Europe  and  of  the 
Papacy  when  John  Wyclif  was  born ;  and  Wyclif 
himself,  in  the  ripeness  of  life  and  the  fulness  of 
activity,  was  to  witness  the  great  Schism  of  1378,  by 
which  the  diminished  authority  of  Rome  was  to  be 
still  further  impaired  and  depreciated. 

He  might  have  repeated  to  himself  in  his  old  age, 
with  pardonable  exultation,  that  eloquent  sentence  of 
the  historian  of  ancient  and  secular  Rome:  " Habent 
imperia  siios  terminos ;  hue  cum  venerint,  sistunt, 
retrocedunt,  ruunt" 


CHAPTER  III. 


MONKS   AND    FRIARS. 


T  would  be  impossible  to  plot 
out  a  faithful  picture  of  the 
life  and  character  of  Wyclif 
without  adding  two  other 
sketches  to  the  background, 
which  already  reveals  the  ag- 
gressions and  the  subjection  of 
the  Papacy  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  No  one  who  wishes 
to  bring  that  picture  clearly  before  his  mind  can 
afford  to  leave  out  of  sight  the  striking  figures 
of  the  monks  and  friars  by  whom  the  path  of  the 
earlier  and  later  Reformers  was  beset.  Still  less 
could  the  career  of  Wyclif  be  appreciated  by  one 
who  has  not  made  himself  in  some  degree  familiar 
with  the  Schoolmen  whose  teaching  Wyclif  imbibed 
at  Oxford,  and  whose  progressive  ideas  and  ardent 
love  of  truth  he  interpreted  to  the  humblest  of  his 
fellow-countrymen. 

40 


DOMINICAN  (BLACK)    FRIAR.     13TH   CENTURY. 

(FROM   MIGNE'S    "  ENCYCLOPEDIE.") 


Monks  and  Friars.  4 1 

Let  us  begin  by  recalling  to  memory  the  more 
notable  monastic  Orders  of  the  Christian  Church, 
and  especially  their  institutions  and  representatives 
in  England,  as  they  existed  during  the  Reformation 
epoch — an  epoch,  be  it  always  borne  in  mind,  by  no 
means  coincident  with  the  reigns  of  a  few  Tudor 
monarchs,  but  inaugurated  by  the  intellectual  cour- 
age of  the  Schoolmen,  prepared  by  the  combative 
independence  of  the  Plantagenet  kings,  and  merely 
arriving  at  its  crisis  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

Seven  hundred  years  divided  St.  Benedict  and  his 
sister  Scholastica  from  the  Spaniard  Dominic  and  the 
Italian  Francis  of  Assisi,  who  founded  the  two  Or- 
ders of  Preaching  and  Begging  Friars.  The  vows  of 
the  Benedictine  monks  bound  the  members  of  this 
Order  to  self-abnegation,  chastity,  and  other  virtues, 
and  the  guiding  idea  of  the  founder  seems  to  have 
been  that  of  refuge  from  the  vices,  troubles,  and 
distractions  of  the  world.  The  Cistercians,  Carthu- 
sians, and  other  monastic  bodies  which  had  been 
established  between  the  years  900  and  1200  were 
governed  in  the  main  by  Benedict's  rules,  and  may 
be  regarded  as  Benedictines  themselves.  Ecclesiasti- 
cal writers  have  claimed  for  the  same  Order  no  fewer 
than  forty  popes,  two  hundred  cardinals,  and  some- 
thing like  five  thousand  archbishops  and  bishops. 
From  the  earliest  systematic  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity into  England  the  Benedictines  played  an 
active  part  in  the  conversion  of  the  people.  They 
accumulated  vast  wealth,  and  secured  for  themselves 
a  strong  vantage-ground  by  the  establishment  of 
abbeys    and    monasteries.      Comprised    within    the 


42  John  Wyclif. 


borders  of  the  Church,  yet  not  strictly  a  part  of  the 
Church  organism,  this  Order  occupied  a  compara- 
tively independent  position  in  regard  to  the  ecclesi- 
astical and  the  secular  authorities,  in  alliance  with 
Rome  but  not  absolutely  subject  to  her,  often  op- 
posing its  interests  to  those  of  Church,  Crown,  and 
People,  powerful  as  a  friend  or  as  an  enemy,  yet 
"dead  in  law,"  and  crippled  by  statutory  disabilities. 

With  the  accumulation  of  wealth  and  privileges, 
it  was  inevitable  that  abuses  and  corruptions  should 
find  their  way  into  the  monasteries,  and  that  an  in- 
tense jealousy  should  be  aroused  against  these  privi- 
leged communities,  both  amongst  the  secular  clergy 
and  amongst  the  people  at  large.  The  unquestioned 
annals  of  the  time  show  that  there  was  ample 
ground  for  the  protests  raised  on  all  hands  against 
the  immunities  as  well  as  the  morals  of  the  monks. 
Very  possibly,  indeed,  there  has  been  too  much 
generalisation  from  particular  instances,  and  a  too 
wholesale  condemnation  of  houses  which  in  many 
cases  were  homes  of  unaffected  piety  and  distin- 
guished learning.  The  Carthusians  and  Bernardines 
maintained  to  the  last  a  special  repute  for  learning 
and  virtue.  The  abounding  charity  of  the  monastic 
bodies  has  never  been  denied,  and  that  something 
less  than  justice  has  been  done  to  their  average  and 
relative  morality  is  at  once  a  natural  supposition  and 
capable  of  proof. 

There  is  no  need  of  exaggeration  in  order  to 
s  justify  the  portraits  drawn  by  Langland  and  Chau- 
cer, by  Wyclif  and  his  Oxford  sympathisers,  by  the 
Poor   Priests  and   the  song-writers  of   the  Lollard 


Monks  and  Friars.  43 

movement.  They  painted  what  they  saw,  and  their 
pictures  were  recognised  as  true.  If  the  satires  had 
been  mere  lampoons,  the  songs  and  sermons  nothing 
more  than  scandalous  exaggerations,  England  would 
not  have  witnessed  a  dissolution  of  monasteries 
early  in  the  fifteenth  century  ;  for  no  measure  of 
that  kind  would  have  been  ventured  upon  in  ad- 
vance of  popular  opinion.  One  hundred  and  ten 
years  before  the  beginning  of  the  great  dissolution 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  it  is  recorded  that 
more  than  a  hundred  religious  houses  were  sup- 
pressed ;  so  closely  is  the  parallel  drawn  between 
the  final  reformation  and  its  first  rehearsal. 

The  fact  is  that  the  abbots  and  monks  had  been 
corrupted  by  their  wealth,  as  the  secular  clergy  had 
been  corrupted  by  their  participation  in  politics  and 
their  relaxation  of  religious  observances.  The  higher 
regulars,  who  were  still  supposed  to  shape  their  lives 
by  the  regula  monachorum,  had  the  faults  and  weak- 
nesses shared  by  all  close  corporations.  Their  policy 
was  to  add  land  to  land  and  house  to  house,  to 
maintain  the  dignity  and  revenues  of  their  abbeys, 
and  to  live,  each  according  to  his  rank,  as  pleasant 
and  companionable  men  of  the  world.  Chaucer's 
monk,  whom  the  poet  describes  on  his  April  jaunt 
to  Canterbury,  was  fond  of  sport  and  display,  of 
horses  and  hounds  : 

"  An  out-rider  that  loved  venerye  ; 
A  manly  man,  to  be  an  abbot  able, 
Ful  many  a  dainty  horse  had  he  in  stable. 
•.     .     .     The  rule  of  Saint  Maure  and  of  Saint  Beneyt, 
Because  that  it  was  old  and  somdel  strayt, 


44  John  Wyclif. 


This  ilke  monke  let  forby  him  pace, 
And  held  after  the  newe  world     .     .     . 
Therefore  he  was  a  pricasour  aright ; 
Greyhounds  he  had  as  swift  as  fowl  in  flight ; 
Of  priking  and  of  hunting  for  the  hare 
Was  all  his  lust,  for  no  cost  wolde  he  spare." 

It  was  a  dissolute  age ;  the  country  was  demoral- 
ised by  war,  by  the  ostentation  of  the  rich  and  the 
desgerate  impoverishment  of  the  masses,  by  the 
almost  complete  immunity  of  the  clergy  from  civil 
constraint,  and  by  the  license  in  which  many  of  them 
as  a  natural  consequence  indulged.  Of  course  the 
manners  and  morals  of  the  time  are  not  to  be  meas- 
ured by  the  standard  which  is  set  up  in  our  own 
days.  A  clergyman  of  the  nineteenth  century  does 
not  frequent  ale-houses,  attend  cock-fights  and  box- 
ing-matches, or  rule  the  roost  at  boisterous  con- 
vivialities. He  does  not  even  hunt  with  a  good 
conscience,  and  if  he  dices  or  plays  cards  he  does 
not  indulge  the  taste  in  a  mixed  company,  or  in 
places  of  public  resort.  All  these  things  were  done 
freely  and  openly  by  jovial  monks  and  seculars  in 
the  fourteenth  century.  The  parish  parsons  were 
generally  too  poor  for  showy  vices,  but  the  poorest 
men  could  be  "  common  ale-goers,"  and  throw  the  dice 
for  the  cost  of  a  tankard.  From  lowest  to  highest — 
not  without  exceptions — there  was  an  ascending 
scale  of  vicious  ostentation.  The  court,  the  chase, 
the  tournament,  and  the  pilgrimage  itself  were 
frequently  mere  parades  of  wantonness,  and  they 
were  constantly  attended  by  the  regular  clergy — by 
abbots  and  abbesses,  priors,  monks,  and  nuns. 


Monks  and  Friars.  45 

A  century  before  the  birth  of  Wyclif,  the  monks 
were  confronted  with  dangerous  rivals,  who,  whilst 
they  began  by  carrying  back  the  minds  of  men  to  the 
earlier  models  of  ascetic  discipline,  with  marvellous 
promptitude  imitated  and  surpassed  the  evil  exam- 
ples of  their  predecessors.  In  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury alone,  as  many  as  seven  or  eight  new  Orders  of 
religious  brethren  found  their  way  to  England.  In 
London,  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  at  scores 
of  places  throughout  the  country,  they  received  gifts 
of  houses  and  land,  forgetting  their  fervour  in  pro- 
portion as  they  accumulated  their  wealth.  Amongst 
them  were  the  Crossed  or  Crutched  Friars,  the 
Augustinian  Friars,  the  Penitential  Friars,  and  the 
Carmelites  or  White  Friars.  But  the  largest  and 
most  famous  of  the  new  Orders  were  the  Dominicans 
and  Franciscans,  whose  arrival  in  England  and 
Oxford  was  practically  simultaneous. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  greater  contrast 
amongst  the  devoted  pioneers  of  the  Catholic  Church 
than  that  which  is  afforded  by  the  two  saints  Bene- 
dict and  Dominic.  Both  set  the  stamp  of  their 
vigorous  personality  upon  many  succeeding  ages  ; 
and  the  brotherhoods  which  they  founded  have  done 
as  much  as  any  other  single  cause  to  determine 
the  character  of  their  Church  in  its  relations  with 
the  world.  It  is  in  the  ideas  which  underlie  their 
institutions  that  the  contrast  becomes  marked  and 
significant.  The  Benedictine  monasteries,  brother- 
hoods and  sisterhoods  alike,  were  in  the  first  place 
essentially  refuges  from  the  world.  In  the  case  of 
Benedict  himself,  and   of  his  immediate  followers, 


46  John  Wyclif. 


the  refuge  was  sought  not  only  against  a  turbulent 
and  vicious  world,  but  also  against  the  formal  and 
unsatisfying  character  of  the  teaching  and  worship 
of  the  day.  The  English  monasteries  retained  to 
some  extent  their  specially  defensive  and  social 
features ;  men  and  women  resorted  to  them  in  order 
to  live  a  peaceful,  regular,  and  reasonably  holy  life ; 
and,  apart  from  the  abuses  which  crept  into  the 
system,  prevailing  in  some  houses  but  conspicuously 
absent  from  the  best,  this  was  their  object  and  the 
end  which  they  achieved. 

The  Castilian  Dominic  had  a  very  different  aim  in 
founding  his  Order  of  Preaching  (Black)  Friars. 
The  Church  had  reached  a  stage  at  which  the  desire 
for  protection  against  secular  persecutions  could  no 
longer  be  a  pressing  cause  of  retirement  from  the 
world.  What  Dominic  felt  himself  moved  to  estab- 
lish was  a  mission  into  the  world,  not  a  refuge  from 
it.  His  plan  was  to  send  forth  missionaries  with  a 
distinct  and  well  considered  purpose ;  aggression 
was  the  moving  principle  of  his  life  and  of  his  teach- 
ing. He  was  the  flaming  sword  of  the  Church,  de- 
voted to  the  persecution  and  destruction  of  heretics, 
for  the  saving  of  their  souls  and  the  relief  of  true 
religion.  He  has  a  threefold  title  to  fame,  such  as 
few  amongst  the  great  military  conquerors  have 
surpassed.  He  it  was  who  devised  the  terrible 
campaigns  against  the  Albigenses,  who  inspired  the 
creation  of  the  courts  of  Inquisition,  and  who  sent 
out  the  Preaching  Friars  against  the  sheep  which 
had  wandered  from  the  fold. 

The    friars  had    his  own    example   to  guide   and 


Monks  and  Friars,  47 

encourage  them.  The  fiery  fanatic  himself  under- 
took to  wrestle  with  the  ill-fated  adherents  of  Pierre 
de  Vaud,  and  the  other  heretics  of  Languedoc  ;  and, 
when  his  preaching  had  failed  to  reach  their  souls, 
the  Inquisitors  were  called  in  to  deal  with  their 
bodies.  It  was  a  system  beautiful  in  its  simplicity  ; 
but  to  do  it  justice  required  a  subtle  and  keenly 
tempered  mind. 

Innocent  III.  found  it  possible  in  the  thirteenth 
century  to  set  up  in  parts  of  Italy,  France,  and  Spain, 
these  irregular  courts  of  divine  vicarial  justice,  hav- 
ing the  power  of  life  and  death,  yet  denying  the 
very  semblance  of  legality  to  the  accused.  Not 
only  could  he  create  them  by  his  own  fiat,  but  he 
was  also  able  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  executive  arm, 
and  to  throw  the  expenses  of  his  tribunal  on  the 
State.  In  1233,  Gregory  IX.  expressly  assigned  the 
control  of  the  Inquisition  to  the  Dominican  Order, 
which  was  declared  to  be  in  every  country  ex- 
clusively responsible  to  the  Holy  See.  A  genera- 
tion later,  the  Franciscans  were  associated  with  the 
Dominicans  in  this  control ;  but  the  Black  Friars 
never  ceased  to  be  the  leading  spirits  of  the  cam- 
paign inaugurated  by  their  founder. 

England  was  not  a  soil  in  which  the  exotic  Inqui- 
sition could  flourish.  The  Interdict  had  not  long 
been  removed,  and  the  Fair  of  Lincoln  was  but  four 
years  passed,  when  the  first  Dominicans  found  their 
way  to  this  country  in  1221.  As  a  matter  of  course 
they  betook  themselves  at  once  to  the  universities. 
They  had  powerful  backers,  and  soon  acquired 
houses  and  land.     Their  influence  grew  rapidly,  and, 


48  John  Wyclif. 


if  it  had  been  possible  to  imitate  at  Oxford  and 
London  what  was  done  at  Toulouse  and  Paris, 
under  Louis  the  Saint  and  his  mother  Blanche  of 
Castile,  there  were  doubtless  fanatics  enough  in 
England  to  be  ready  participants  in  the  Dominican 
crusade.  But  it  was  not  possible.  Apart  from  the 
absolute  bar  which  English  independence  of  character 
would  have  offered  to  the  creation  of  a  new  tribunal 
at  the  instance  of  a  foreign  potentate, — in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  England  was  for  her  own  purposes  a 
tributary  of  Rome, — still  the  long  succession  of  wars 
with  France,  the  increasing  jealousy  of  papal  inter- 
ference, and  perhaps  even  the  political  sympathy 
evoked  by  the  religious  tyranny  in  Languedoc  (our 
next  neighbour  in  Gascony  and  Guienne)  would  have 
sufficed  to  prevent  it. 

We  may  assume  that  Dominic  saw  the  impos- 
sibility as  clearly  as  anyone.  If  he  gave  a  special 
mandate  to  his  English  missionaries,  as  is  likely 
enough,  he  would  remind  them  that  they  were  not 
to  expect  any  help  from  the  arm  of  the  Inquisition, 
and  that,  for  the  present  at  least,  no  rack  or  funeral 
pyre  could  aid  them  in  their  quest  of  souls.  He 
would  bid  them  gain  a  footing  amongst  the  clerks 
and  students  of  the  ancient  universities,  and  direct 
their  subtlety  against  the  perilous  inroads  on  the 
faith  which  had  already  been  made  by  the  School- 
men. He  would  tell  them  to  watch  for  the  begin- 
nings of  relapse,  to  train  themselves  for  the  contest 
which  was  certain  to  be  thrust  upon  them,  and  to 
keep  the  sword  of  their  dialectic  sharp  and  keen. 
They  might  find  at  Oxford  or  at  Cambridge  a  new 


Monks  and  Friars.  49 

Abelard,  a  stiff-necked  scholar,  puffed  up  with  pride, 
teaching  the  new-fangled  learning,  distilling  the 
poison  of  pro  fane  knowledge  and  unchastened  reason, 
spreading  around  him  the  miasma  of  heresy  and 
rebellion.  Let  them  scent  such  a  man,  mark  him, 
track  him  down,  wrestle  with  him  for  his  own  soul 
and  the  souls  of  his  unhappy  victims — and  then  ? 
Well,  the  English  were  an  obstinate  race.  The  civil 
authorities  might  give  them  no  aid  against  the  most 
pestilent  of  heretics  ;  even  the  bishops  might  remain 
indifferent  to  their  faithful  expostulations.  It  was 
for  his  devoted  Preachers  to  meet  such  difficulties 
with  sublimer  faith,  with  subtler  intellect,  with 
blades  from  the  armoury  of  their  enemy  ;  and  the 
time  might  yet  come,  even  in  rebellious  England, 
when  the  stern  but  loving  discipline  of  Holy  Church 
might  contribute  to  the  greater  glory  of  God  by  its 
autos-da-fl. 

So  may  we  imagine  this  seer  and  zealot  of  the  still 
undivided  Church  to  have  commissioned  his  English 
delegates,  as  he  placed  in  their  hands  a  letter  of 
recommendation  from  Blanche  of  Castile  to  Isabel 
de  Balbec,  the  pious  wife  of  Robert  de  Vere,  who 
was  to  give  them  the  nest-egg  of  their  future  posses- 
sions both  at  Oxford  and  at  Cambridge. 

At  any  rate  this  was  the  policy  which  the  English 
Dominicans  more  or  less  consciously  pursued.  They 
bided  their  time,  and  whenever  a  chance  presented 
itself  they  were  ardent  defenders  of  the  Roman  tra- 
dition and  the  papal  authority.  It  does  not  appear 
that  their  morals  were  ever  so  far  relaxed  as  those  of 
the  Franciscans  ;  and  intellectually  they  remained 


50  John  Wyclif. 


more  in  harmony  with  and  loyal  to  their  superiors  on 
the  continent  than  the  generality  of  the  Orders  in 
England.  Whilst  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  men  of 
independent  thought  amongst  the  friars  in  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries,  like  the  Franciscan 
Roger  Bacon  (whose  brother  Robert  was  a  staunch 
Dominican)  and  the  Carmelite  John  Baconthorpe,  we 
scarcely  ever  come  across  a  Preaching  Friar  who  was 
not  imbued  with  the  narrow  and  aggressive  spirit  of 
St.  Dominic  against  the  merest  indication  of  heresy. 
Wyclif  may  have  had  friends  and  sympathisers  in 
every  Order.  He  was  certainly  at  one  time  on  fairly 
good  terms  with  many  of  the  Franciscan  Friars.  But 
no  tolerance  for  his  bolder  views  and  innovations 
could  be  expected  from  the  Dominican  obscurants. 
They- were  amongst  the  first  to  detect  his  heresy,  to 
denounce  him  at  home  and  at  Rome,  to  reproach  the 
bishops  for  their  indifference  to  his  false  teaching, 
and  to  produce  against  him  that  keen-edged  sword 
which  their  founder  had  entrusted  to  them.  We 
may  anticipate  our  story  so  far  as  to  quote  from  a 
list  of  the  more  celebrated  members  of  the  Order 
(given  by  Stevens  from  the  papers  of  Anthony  a 
Wood,  who  was  indebted  to  Bishop  Bale)  the  names 
of  certain  Dominicans  who  particularly  signalised 
themselves  by  their  zeal  in  refuting  the  errors  of 
Lollardy.  Thus  we  read  of  William  Jordan  (1370) 
"  who  with  much  boldness  excelled  among  the  Ox- 
ford masters,  carrying  himself  with  much  boasting 
ostentation,  and  like  another  Ismael  (so  says  Bale) 
opposed  all  men,  and  was  opposed  by  all.  He  writ 
pieces  against  Wickliff's  positions  "  ; — Roger  Dimock 


Monks  and  Friars.  5 1 

(1390),  "a  man  of  singular  judgment,  not  only  in 
philosophical  matters  .  .  .  but  also  in  the  mys- 
teries of  divinity  which  relate  to  faith.  He  spent 
many  years  at  Oxford  with  reputation  ;  amongst 
which  that  was  most  remarkable  in  which  he  was 
appointed  by  the  vote  of  the  universities  the  invin- 
cible champion  to  conquer  Wickliff's  followers  "  ; — 
and  Robert  Humbleton,  "who  by  several  writings 
declared  himself  a  professed  enemy  to  Wickliff  and 
his  followers." 

Humbleton  was  present  as  a  bachelor  of  theology 
at  the  proceedings  taken  against  Wyclif  in  1382 — 
and  the  various  Orders  were  of  course  largely  repre- 
sented at  all  such  proceedings.  Kynyngham,  a 
Carmelite  Friar,  was  specially  selected  to  argue 
against  Wyclif,  long  before  the  Church  authorities 
had  begun  to  move.  Of  the  twelve  theologians  who 
condemned  Wyclif  in  1 381,  at  the  instigation  of 
Courtenay,  six  were  friars  and  two  were  monks. 

This  is  by  the  way  ;  but  note  how  the  long  arm  of 
the  astute  Dominic  had  reached  through  the  centu- 
ries and  across  the  northern  seas,  adapting  means  to 
surroundings,  and  preparing  the  very  instrument 
which  would  be  necessary  to  crush  (if  anything 
could  crush)  the  English  revolt  against  the  Papacy. 
Let  us  recognise  how  marvellous  a  service — albeit 
transitory  and  incomplete — was  rendered  to  the 
cause  which  had  enlisted  his  transcendent  abilities 
by  the  Inquisitor-General  of  France  and  Spain.  In 
his  native  country,  in  Languedoc  and  the  valleys  of 
the  Alps,  by  torture,  death,  and  domestic  crusade,  he 
went  far  towards  annihilating  the  nascent  opposition 


52  John  Wyclif. 


to  Rome,  and  helped  to  weld  a  France  which  to  this 
day,  in  spite  of  republican  institutions  and  widespread 
rationalism,  is  not  so  much  the  eldest  son  as  the  most 
jealous  guardian  of  the  Roman  Church.  And  in 
England,  though  his  Inquisition  was  powerless,  and 
he  had  to  wait  nearly  two  hundred  years  for  the 
attainment  of  his  ambition,  it  was  still  St.  Dominic 
and  his  Preaching  Friars  who  turned  the  blade  of 
Wyclif s  logic,  diverted  the  full  flood  of  Lollardy 
until  it  was  lost  for  a  century  in  the  sands,  instigated 
a  persecution  almost  as  bitter  as  that  which  had  been 
directed  against  the  Waldenses,  and  for  a  time 
baulked  and  defeated  the  intellectual  movement  in 
the  English  Church. 

The  coming  of  the  Franciscan  (Grey)  Friars,  or 
Friars  Minor,  to  Oxford  took  place  in  the  year  1224. 
Their  arrival  in  England  was  only  a  few  years  later 
than  that  of  the  Dominicans,  as  the  institution  of 
their  Order  was  a  few  years  subsequent  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Preaching  Friars.  The  quaint  story 
of  Ingeworth  and  Henry  of  Devon,  as  recorded  in 
Stevens's  transcript  from  the  papers  of  Anthony  a 
Wood,  is  well  worth  telling  afresh. 

These  two  forerunners  of  a  famous  brotherhood, 
"being  not  far  from  Oxford,  and  gone  out  of  the 
way  as  not  knowing  the  country,"  turned  off  to  a 
grange  or  farm-house  of  the  Benedictines  of  Abing- 
don, six  miles  from  Oxford,  because  night  was  draw- 
ing on  and  the  floods  were  out.  Stevens  suggests 
that  the  precise  locality  may  have  been  Baldon,  or 
Culham,  for  at  both  places  the  Abbey  of  Abing- 
don had  property.     "  The  friers  came  to  it  just  at 


FRANCISCAN  (GREY)  FRIAR. 

(FROM    MIGNE'S    "  ENCYCLOPEDIE." 


Monks  and  Friars.  5  3 

nightfall ;  and,  knocking  gently  at  the  door,  humbly- 
begged  for  God's  sake  to  be  admitted,  otherwise 
they  should  perish  through  hunger  and  cold.  It 
was  the  porter  to  whom  they  made  their  request, 
who,  guessing  these  two  friers  by  their  patched 
habits,  the  meanness  of  their  aspect,  and  their  broken 
language,  to  be  some  mimics,  or  disguised  persons, 
carried  the  message  to  the  prior,  who  was  not  dis- 
pleased with  it.  He,  hastening  to  the  door  with  the 
sacrist,  the  cellarer,  and  two  younger  monks,  freely 
invited  them  in,  expecting  to  be  entertained  with 
some  sleight  of  hand  or  diverting  pastime.  But  the 
friers,  with  a  composed  and  sedate  countenance, 
affirming  that  they  were  mistaken,  that  they  were  no 
such  vile  men,  but  that  they  had  chosen  an  apostoli- 
cal course  of  life  to  serve  God,  the  Benedictines, 
displeased  to  be  so  defrauded  of  their  expected 
diversion,  turned  out  the  friers,  after  misusing,  kick- 
ing and  buffeting  them."  So  they  went  out  into 
the  cold  and  rain  again  ;  but  one  of  the  young 
monks  took  pity  on  them,  and  smuggled  them  into 
the  hayloft.  And  afterwards,  in  a  dream,  he  beheld 
Christ  making  inquisition  into  the  conduct  of  the 
wicked  Benedictines,  and  condemning  them,  after 
their  repudiation  by  St.  Benedict  as  subverters  of 
his  rule,  to  be  hanged  on  a  convenient  elm  tree. 

It  is  added  that  Ingeworth  and  Henry  of  Devon 
proceeded  next  morning  to  Oxford,  and  went  to  the 
house  of  the  Dominicans  in  the  Jewry,  where  they 
were  entertained  for  eight  days.  Evidently  the 
story  is  of  Franciscan  origin,  and  it  bears  witness 
not  only  to  the  opinions  entertained  of  Benedictine 


54  John  Wydif. 


laxity  by  the  new  devotees,  but  also  to  the  har- 
monious relations  existing  at  the  time  between  the 
followers  of  Dominic  and  those  of  Francis  of  Assisi. 
It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  harmony  and  co- 
operation of  the  friars  in  matters  of  common  interest 
was  no  sign  of  identity  in  their  mandates,  vows,  or 
ultimate  aims.  Most  of  the  brotherhoods  originating 
in  the  thirteenth  century  seem  to  have  owed  their 
institution  to  the  revival  of  religious  fervour  by  the 
crusades  or  otherwise,  and  to  a  spirit  of  moral  inno- 
vation due  to  the  plethoric  abuses  of  many  Benedic- 
tine houses.  It  is  not  clear  that  any  other  Order 
had  the  subtlety  of  purpose  which  undoubtedly  be- 
longed to  the  Dominicans,  though  many  of  the 
Franciscans  were  evidently  made  of  the  same  stuff, 
and  were  equally  intellectual  and  highly-trained 
men.  It  is  told  of  Francis — whose  youth  was  disso- 
lute and  profligate — that  when  he  elected  to  follow 
an  ascetic  life  his  father  required  him  to  make  a 
formal  renunciation  of  his  inheritance,  and  that  he 
thereupon  stripped  himself  naked,  in  order  that  the 
symbol  might  be  beyond  dispute.  And  it  is  further 
stated  that  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  he  had  as 
many  as  five  thousand  friars  at  his  disposal,  who  had 
been  moved  by  his  example  to  similar  acts  of  re- 
nunciation. In  any  case  it  is  certain  that  the 
Dominicans  and  Franciscans  were,  and  continued 
to  be  recruited  by,  picked  men,  socially  and  intellec- 
tually on  a  level  with  the  men  whom  they  would 
meet  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  And  of  course 
they  would  not  be  long  in  England  before  the  main 
body  of  their  members  were  drawn  from  the  uni- 


Monks  and  Friars.  55 

versity  students,  although  the  general  direction  of 
the  Orders  came  from  Rome. 

The  corruption  of  the  new  Orders  from  their  prelim- 
inary professions  of  poverty,  simplicity  of  life,  and 
singleness  of  purpose  was  sooner  or  later  inevitable. 
The  originative  influence  of  St.  Dominic  in  regard  to 
his  own  Order  has  been  insisted  on  above.  He  is  not 
likely  to  have  had  any  influence  in  establishing  the 
other  Orders  which  arose  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
Yet  there  doubtless  was  a  common  origin  for  them 
all ;  and  it  is  not  far  to  seek.  The  Benedictines  were 
so  widely  spread,  so  wealthy,  and  so  powerful  in  the 
social  relations  which  they  maintained  with  the  laity, 
that  if  they  had  continued  to  bring  a  balance  of 
advantage  to  the  Church  and  its  rulers  there  would 
have  been  no  need  for  the  institution  of  new  Orders. 
But  the  balance  of  advantage  had  virtually  disap- 
peared. The  general  contempt  into  which  so  many 
worldly,  idle,  and  vicious  monks  had  fallen  in  every 
country  could  not  fail  to  weaken  the  hold  of  religion 
on  the  popular  mind.  Innocent  III.  and  his  suc- 
cessors appear  to  have  been  convinced  that  a  crusade 
in  Christendom  was  quite  as  necessary  as  a  crusade 
against  the  avowed  infidels,  and  that  the  most 
effective  weapons  for  the  new  crusaders  would  be 
those  of  apostolic  poverty  and  fervour.  Nor  was  it 
only,  or  even  mainly,  as  a  corrective  against  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  monks  that  the  Mendicant  Friars 
were  sent  forth.  Their  object  was  also  to  supply  the 
defects  of  the  secular  clergy,  whose  lack  of  energy, 
and  often  of  practical  piety,  was  gravely  reflected  on 
by  their  contemporaries. 


56  John  Wyclif. 


The  enthusiasm  and  success  of  the  early  friars  have 
been  compared  with  those  of  the  English  Methodists 
in  the  days  of  Wesley  and  Whitfield.  They  would 
be  fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  nation  when  John 
Wyclif,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  sent  out  his  own 
Poor  Priests  to  emulate  their  spirit  and  to  achieve  a 
very  similar  success.  The  friars  of  the  thirteenth 
century  found  a  church  in  every  street  and  field  ; 
they  carried  with  them  not  only  the  evidences  of 
their  personal  poverty,  but  the  fullest  sacerdotal 
authority,  and  the  very  altars  and  sacraments  of 
religion.  In  the  course  of  a  generation  we  find  Mat- 
thew of  Paris  complaining  that  the  churches  were 
deserted,  and  that  the  people  would  confess  to  none 
but  friars.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
secular  qlergy,  the  hierarchy,  and  even  the  universi- 
ties remonstrated  against  the  privileges  and  favours 
which  Rome  continued  to  shower  upon  her  new 
missionaries. 

The  doctrine  of  poverty  was  an  essential  part  of 
the  constitution  of  St.  Francis.  When  the  Fran- 
ciscans began  to  hold  houses  and  lands  of  their  own, 
to  live  like  Benedictine  monks  in  their  convents,  and 
to  relax  their  apostolical  fervour  as  well  as  their 
evangelical  poverty,  they  ceased  to  fulfil  the  pur- 
poses for  which  they  were  founded.  Even  the 
brightest  ornaments  of  the  Order,  such  as  Bishop 
Grosteste  (who  left  them  his  library),  Adam  Marsh, 
Roger  Bacon,  the  "  Irrefragable  "  Alexander  Hales, 
the  learned  and  influential  Haymo,  Duns  Scotus,  and 
William  of  Ockham,  were  anything  rather  than  the 
mendicant  missioners  whom  St.  Francis  had  pictured 


Monks  and  Friars.  5  7 

in  his  mind.  Many  of  the  friars  nevertheless  adhered 
to  the  original  rule,  taking  the  name  of  Spirituals  or 
Observants.  The  dispute  between  the  two  sections 
of  the  Order  soon  waxed  warm,  and  the  popes  of  the 
thirteenth  century  had  much  difficulty  in  holding  the 
balance  between  them.  It  was  declared  from  Rome 
that  whilst  the  Order  were  debarred  from  actual  own- 
ership, they  were  entitled  to  the  usufruct  of  their 
acquisitions,  the  property  itself  being  vested  in  the 
Supreme  Pontiff.  Pope  Nicholas  III.  formulated  a 
bull  to  this  effect.  The  conscience  of  the  Spirituals 
was  not  satisfied  by  this  partial  vindication,  and  the 
principle  involved  appeared  to  them  so  important 
that  it  became  almost  a  new  basis  of  religious  faith. 
Christ  and  his  disciples,  they  maintained,  were  vol- 
untarily poor ;  the  possession  of  wealth  was  incom- 
patible with  apostolic  Christianity  ;  poverty  was  an 
indispensable  note  of  a  true  Church.  As  late  as 
1322  a  general  assembly  of  the  Franciscans  at 
Perugia,  representing  the  branches  of  the  Order  in 
every  country,  adopted  the  doctrine  of  evangelical 
poverty  in  its  fullest  sense. 

This  was  logical ;  but  equally  logical  was  the 
alarm  of  the  Pope  and  his  supporters.  For  the 
natural  and  necessary  development  of  one  of  the 
chief  factors  of  pure  Christianity  was  seen  to  be  in 
direct  conflict  with  the  teaching  and  practice  of  the 
Papacy.  If  the  Spiritual  Franciscans  were  right,  the 
Pope,  the  superior  clergy,  the  monks,  the  Domini- 
cans themselves,  were  all  unapostolic,  not  to  say 
anti-Christian.  Avignon  fulminated  at  once  against 
these  new  heretics,  and  John  XXII.  did  not  hesitate 


58  John  Wyclif. 


to  cut  out  of  the  decretals  the  bull  which  Nicholas 
III.  had  promulgated  at  Rome.  The  Order  as  a 
whole  gave  way ;  but  many  an  honest  friar  and  clerk 
muttered  in  advance  his  "  e  pur  si  muove." 

This  was  a  turning-point  of  the  early  Reformation. 
If  it  had  been  humanly  possible  to  crush  the  Papacy 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  or  even  to  liberate  the 
national  Churches  from  papal  control  or  interference, 
the  task  would  have  been  accomplished.  For  the 
spiritual  blow  delivered  by  the  Franciscans  in  1322 
was  as  staggering  in  its  way  as  the  political  blow 
administered  by  Philip  of  France  less  than  twenty 
years  before.  And  in  fact,  both  in  the  political  and 
in  the  spiritual  order,  the  work  of  those  twenty 
years  was  substantially  effectual.  It  was  in  the 
direct  line  of  thought  and  action  from  Avignon  and 
Perugia  onwards,  through  the  Schoolmen  and  the  Lol- 
lards, through  Marsiglio  of  the  University  of  Paris 
and  Wyclif  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  that  the 
statesmen  and  clerics  of  the  sixteenth  century  de- 
rived their  power  to  strike  and  to  conquer.  With 
the  Spiritual  Franciscans  Wyclif  never  ceased  to  be 
in  full  sympathy ;  but  when  he  came  to  maturity 
they  were  comparatively  few  and  insignificant. 

Such,  then,  were  the  monks  and  the  friars  with 
whom  Wyclif  was  brought  into  contact  and  conflict 
in  the  fourteenth  century — distinct  from  each  other 
and  from  the  national  Church,  by  no  means  always 
in  harmony,  yet  all  in  a  large  measure  subordinate 
to  a  foreign  authority,  and  all  virtually  combined  in 
common  defence  of  their  positions  against  the  inno- 
vating spirit  of  the  early  Reformers. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


WYCLIF   AND   THE   SCHOOLMEN. 


J  E     have     already    encountered, 
amongst    the  pioneers  of    reli- 


gious reform  in  England,  mem- 
bers of  two  mutually  supporting 
bodies,  advancing  in  parallel 
directions  towards  a  common 
object.  On  the  one  hand  we  v 
see  the  men  of  action,  monarchs 
and  statesmen,  with  their  allies 
and  instruments,  who  in  the  temporal  domain  suc- 
cessively resisted  and  attacked  the  assumptions  of 
the  Roman  Church  ;  and  on  the  other  hand  there 
were  the  men  of  thought,  of  accurate  logic  and 
awakened  conscience,  who  in  the  spiritual  domain 
required  that  Christian  practice  should  conform  to 
the  root-principles  of  Christianity,  and  refused  to 
accept  the  papal  superstructure  as  of  equal  authority 
with  the  foundation  which  it  hid  from  sight. 

59 


6o  John  Wyclif. 


One  of  the  most  interesting  facts  in  connection 
with  the  life  of  John  Wyclif,  which  has  contributed 
as  much  as  anything  else  to  fix  him  in  the  popular 
imagination,  and  to  place  him  permanently  on  the 
roll  of  English  heroes,  is  that  he  elected  to  play  the 
part  of  a  politician  as  well  as  of  a  theologian,  and 
that,  being  a  priest  and  a  Schoolman,  he  joined 
hands  with  the  statesmen  of  his  age,  in  order  to 
secure  what  could  not  be  obtained  without  their  aid. 
No  institution  was  ever  reformed  in  the  absence  of 
co-operation  from  within  ;  and  reformers  within  the 
Church  have  always  commanded  a  lively  sympathy 
in  England.  Wyclif  was  the  first  conspicuous  Eng- 
lish clergyman  who  combined  his  aspirations  for 
reform  with  a  frank  admission  of  the  right  (and  cor- 
responding duty)  of  laymen  to  interpose  in  matters 
of  faith  and  discipline.  We  shall  hereafter  be  in  a 
position  to  judge  as  to  the  nature  of  his  relations 
with  King  and  Parliament,  with  princes  and  with 
peasants.  It  was  through  these  relations  that  he 
became  a  popular  Englishman,  and  that  his  name  has 
stood  out  for  five  centuries  like  a  patch  of  warm  colour 
from  the  neutral  tints  of  the  later  Middle  Ages. 

Now  it  is  above  all  things  important  to  remember 
that  Wyclif  took  this  significant  stand  as  the  direct 
heir  of  the  Schoolmen — as  a  Schoolman  himself,  in- 
terpreting and  giving  effect  to  their  views,  wedding 
action  to  thought, not  only  by  his  individual  energy 
and  initiative,  but  in  obedience  to  national  character 
and  scholastic  training.  Some  injustice  has  been 
done  to  the  Schoolmen  by  constantly  speaking  of 
them  as  though  they  were  men  of  disquisition  only, 


Wyclif  and  the  Schoolmen.  61 

chop-logics  in  a  narrow  groove,  industrious  tillers  of 
a  barren  soil.  This  has  at  any  rate  been  the  popular 
notion  of  their  quality,  and  the  vast  majority  of 
readers  have  been  led  to  dismiss  them  from  their 
minds  with  a  shudder  at  their  repelling  dryness  and 
ineffective  ingenuity.  It  is  only  since  yesterday  that 
something  like  justice  has  been  done  to  their  intel- 
lectual and  theological  position,  to  their  attitude  as 
men  of  action  and  not  merely  as  writers,  and  espe- 
cially to  their  character  as  leaders  in  religious  reform. 
Hallam  remarks  that  the  discovery  of  truth  by 
means  of  scholastic  discussions  "  was  rendered  hope- 
less by  two  insurmountable  obstacles,  the  authority 
of  Aristotle  and  that  of  the  Church."  The  great 
historian,  from  whose  judgments  so  few  of  his  suc- 
cessors are  competent  to  dissent,  regarded  the 
Schoolmen  as  writers  only.  He  does  not  mention 
Marsiglio,  nor  deal  with  Wyclif  as  a  Schoolman. 
He  expresses  disappointment  with  what  he  had  read 
of  Ockham  ;  but  he  had  not  directed  his  attention 
to  the  political  association  of  Marsiglio,  Ockham, 
and  Michael  of  Cesena  with  Ludwig  of  Bavaria,  nor 
to  that  of  Wyclif  with  the  English  court.  Indeed 
it  is  only  in  the  present  generation  that  full  light  has 
been  cast  on  the  innovating  and  revolutionary  spirit 
of  the  later  Schoolmen.  We  must  be  content  to 
sacrifice  the  representative  character  of  the  story  of 
angels  dancing  on  the  point  of  a  needle  in  return 
for  the  more  just  appreciation  of  scholastic  aims  and 
methods  which  we  owe  to  modern  German  and  Eng- 
lish research. 

Enough,  perhaps,  has  been  said  of  the  political 


62  John  Wyclif. 


usurpation  of  Rome,  and  of  the  conflict  excited  by 
it  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century; 
but  it  will  be  interesting  to  ascertain  the  exact  posi- 
tion of  Wyclif  in  the  intellectual  revolt  against  the 
obscurantism  of  the  mediaeval  Church.  It  would 
be  useless  to  ask  ourselves  when  and  where  this 
revolt  actually  began.  The  mind  and  the  heart  of 
man  appear  to  have  acted  on  virtually  identical  prin- 
ciples in  all  ages,  and  no  doubt  the  first  religious 
Reformers  were  contemporaneous  with  the  first 
obscurers  of  truth  and  usurpers  of  authority.  But 
from  the  eleventh  century,  to  take  no  earlier  date, 
the  ever  extending  claims  of  the  Papacy  are  asso- 
ciated with  the  protests  of  active  and  inquiring 
minds.  It  is  clear  that  the  worst  errors  of  Rome 
corresponded  in  time  with  the  feudal  supremacies  in 
the  States,  as  their  refutation  corresponded  with  the 
establishment  of  schools  and  universities. 

The  schools  of  Charles  the  Great,  Alfred,  and 
Edward  the  Confessor  were  largely  developed  and 
frequented  under  Norman  rule.  They  were,  to 
begin  with,  under  the  patronage  of  the  monarchs 
rather  than  of  the  Church ;  they  taught  not  only 
theology  but  also  law  and  medicine,  as  well  as  the 
trivium  and  quadrivium  (grammar,  logic,  rhetoric ; 
music,  arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy) ;  and  they 
constituted  at  once  a  nursery  and  a  refuge  of  minds 
which  sought  intellectual  and  moral  freedom.  Al- 
ready in  the  twelfth  century  we  find  Oxford  attract- 
ing her  three  thousand  students,  and  Paris  divided 
into  her  four  nations  of  France,  Picardy,  Normandy, 
and  England ;  whilst  in  the  next  century  contem- 


Wyclif  and  the  Schoolmen.  63 

porary  writers  number  the  scholars  of  Oxford,  Paris, 
and  Bologna  by  tens  of  thousands.  Close  in  their 
wake  came  the  foundations  of  Padua,  Naples, 
Toulouse,  Montpelier,  Cambridge,  Salamanca,  and 
Prague. 

In  this  fertile  soil  were  sown  the  seeds  of  inde- 
pendence, inquiry,  and  moral  courage.  Here 
learning  grew,  and  the  revolt  against  the  suppression 
of  truth  was  prepared.  The  path  which  Wyclif  was 
to  tread  had  been  worn  by  Abelard  of  Paris  and  his 
pupil  Arnold  of  Brescia,  by  John  of  Salisbury,  Pierre 
Dubois,  and  Berengar ;  by  Bishop  Grosteste,  Bracton, 
Archbishop  Bradwardine,  and  Ockham  of  Oxford ; 
by  Marsiglio  of  Padua  and  Paris,  Fitzralph  of  Oxford, 
Lupoid  of  Bebenburg,  and  many  others  who  owed 
their  training  and  hardihood  to  the  schools. 

Each  particular  age  has  its  available  and  appro- 
priate refuges  for  the  thought  of  man,  in  its  reaction 
and  revolt  against  spiritual  tyranny  ;  yet,  age  for 
age,  the  refuge  is  substantially  the  same  in  each. 
The  human  mind  which  refuses  to  dwell  with  the 
moles  and  bats  must  grope  and  struggle  for  the 
light  by  such  avenues  as  may  be  open  to  it.  Before 
the  period  of  the  general  Renascence  of  liberal 
studies  there  were  few  avenues,  and  those  narrow  and 
difficult,  which  led  to  any  sort  of  illumination  save 
that  which  shone  from  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  The 
seven  sciences  supposed  to  be  included  in  the  trivium 
and  qiiadriviiim — a  fifth-  or  sixth-century  classifica- 
tion—were little  better  than  titles  for  the  students  in 
the  ecclesiastical  schools.  Ingulfus,  Abbot  of  Croy- 
land  in  the  eleventh  century,   a  Westminster  and 


64  John  Wyclif. 


Oxford  man  by  his  own  account,  was  able  to  study 
Aristotle  and  the  first  two  books  of  Tully's  rhetoric, 
evidently  a  giddy  height  of  profane  knowledge  for 
the  days  in  which  he  lived.  The  Latin  poets  as 
known  to  the  zealous  Alcuin  were  forbidden  to  his 
pupils,  and  exceedingly  little  is  heard  of  them  in 
the  succeeding  centuries.  Law  meant  the  decretals 
of  the  popes,  with  a  subsequent  tinge  of  Justinian. 
Medicine  was  but  a  smattering  of  empirical  dogmas 
and  rules,  fallacious  when  not  directly  injurious  and 
homicidal.  Of  liberal,  still  less  of  literary  studies,  in 
the  worthier  sense  of  the  terms,  we  have  barely  a 
trace  before  the  fourteenth  century ;  and  even  then 
they  were  so  rare  that  we  are  astonished  when  a  man 
of  high  culture  like  Chaucer  reveals  his  knowledge 
of  the  contemporary  Italian  poets,  or  when  a  Fran- 
ciscan friar  like  Roger  Bacon  displays  what  looks 
like  a  genuine  spirit  of  exact  scientific  inquiry.  So 
long  as  for  the  majority  of  eager  students  the  science 
of  astronomy  culminated  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
calendar,  and  the  science  of  music  in  a  cathedral 
chant,  whilst  Virgil  smelt  of  magic  and  Ovid  was 
under  a  jealous  ban,  the  learning  of  scholars  could 
but  bring  them  back  to  the  point  from  which  they 
had  started,  often  with  an  eager  craving  for  relief — 
to  the  religious  dogma  of  their  day. 

Hence  the  men  of  intellectual  energy,  who  in 
other  ages  might  have  been  effective  as  philosophical 
inquirers,  were  condemned  to  feed  upon  the  mere 
husks  of  knowledge,  to  beat  the  air  and  walk  the 
vicious  circle,  mumbling  inconclusive  dialogues  on 
universal  ideas,  on  nominalism  and  realism,  on  grace 


Wyclif  and  the  Schoolmen.  65 

and  predestination  and  free-will,  bound  down  mean- 
while to  the  orthodox  theology  of  Rome,  with  no 
better  alternative  and  outlet  than  the  logic  and 
metaphysics  of  Aristotle,  the  comments  of  Averroes, 
and  the  subtleties  of  the  Angelic  Doctor.  Even 
these  were  dangerous  guides  in  the  opinion  of 
many.  Aquinas  held  his  ground,  but  Aristotle  and 
Averroes  were  condemned  by  the  same  authority 
which  tabooed  the  civil  law. 

Such  were  the  studies  of  the  Schoolmen,  both  of 
those  who  strongly  maintained  the  supremacy  of 
Rome  in  matters  of  faith  and  also  of  those  who 
denied  it.  There  was  not  much  intellectual  breadth 
in  this  scholastic  arena,  but  it  was  quite  broad 
enough  to  admit  the  bandying  to  and  fro  of  charges 
of  heresy.  In  days  when  authority  demanded  abso- 
lute conformity,  the  mere  spirit  of  inquiry  and 
research  was  sufficient  to  lay  a  man  open  to  suspi- 
cion and  condemnation.  The  substance  of  the 
average  scholastic  disquisitions  was  so  meagre  and 
trivial  that  it  must  have  been  exceedingly  difficult 
even  for  an  Inquisitor  to  discover  the  heretical  ten- 
dencies of  any  particular  discourse  ;  and  possibly  for 
that  very  reason  the  accusation  was  frequently 
brought. 

It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  conclude  that 
there  was  no  value  in  the  method  by  which  these 
subjects  were  discussed.  It  was  in  fact  the  new  dia- 
lectic itself  which  attracted,  and  to  some  extent 
satisfied  the  frequenters  of  the  schools ;  and  cer- 
tainly it  was  an  instrument  of  mental  discipline 
which,  in  the  absence  of  a  better,  served  to  train  the 


66  John  Wyclif. 


western  mind  to  think,  discriminate,  and  judge.  If 
it  was  for  the  time  applied  to  mere  phantoms  of 
theology  and  philosophy,  and  produced  vacant  chaff 
in  place  of  grain,  still  the  training  had  been  given, 
and  the  instrument  remained  bright  and  keen  for 
future  use. 

The  codification  of  the  canon  law,  which  within 
certain  limits  confirmed  the  authority  of  the  Church 
whilst  it  seemed  to  open  up  a  new  field  of  intellectual 
activity,  had  a  further  and  unforeseen  effect  in 
strengthening  the  opposition  to  papal  supremacy. 
The  sentences  of  the  Fathers,  the  canons  and  de- 
cretals of  the  Popes,  were  compiled  and  re-issued 
many  times  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries. 
The  decretals  were  essentially  aggressive  against  the 
civil  power,  for  they  included  various  decrees  of 
deposition  and  excommunication  of  monarchs,  and 
repeated  declarations  of  the  right  of  the  Pope  to 
dispense  subjects  from  their  allegiance  to  their 
rulers.  One  effect  of  the  publication  of  the  canon 
law  in  this  form  was  to  add  to  the  army  of  the  clergy 
and  the  army  of  the  monks  (soon  to  be  reinforced  by 
the  army  of  the  friars)  yet  another  army  of  lawyers, 
warmly  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  Church. 

It  is  remarkable  that  just  at  this  time  the  study  of 
the  Pandects,  Code,  and  Institutes  of  Justinian — the 
system  of  Roman  law  compiled  and  maintained  in 
Byzantium — was  revived  after  long  neglect.  Was  it 
a  mere  coincidence  ?  Or  may  it  not  be  that  the 
magistrates  and  lawyers,  the  teachers  and  students 
in  the  schools,  reverted  to  Justinian  out  of  sheer 
necessity  for  relief  from  the  narrow  absolutism  of  the 


Wyclif  and  the  Schoolmen.  67 

canon  law — and  that  the  Church,  without  venturing 
or  attempting  to  confine  legal  studies  to  her  own 
decretals,  still  looked  with  suspicion  on  every  other 
kind  of  law  ?  Indeed  this  is  no  mere  supposition  ; 
the  study  of  civil  law  was  long  forbidden  in  the 
University  of  Paris,  and  even  at  Qxford  the  clerical 
authorities  resisted  it  when  it  was  introduced  by 
Vacarius  from  Bologna  in  the  reign  of  Stephen. 
However  it  may  have  been  with  the  civil  law,  it  is 
certain  that  the  common  law  of  England  and  the 
national  customs  and  precedents  of  other  countries 
were  held  up  as  correctives  of  the  ex  cathedra  deliv- 
erances of  the  Papacy,  and  that  their  study  was 
encouraged  by  perspicacious  men  in  order  to  count- 
eract the  teachings  of  Rome  in  the  interests  of  the 
State.  The  jurisprudents  of  Paris,  as  distinct  from 
the  canonists,  were  very  serviceable  to  Philip  the 
Fair  in  his  quarrel  with  Boniface  ;  and  so  it  was  with 
the  independent  lawyers  in  other  countries.  The 
very  infatuation  of  the  Roman  usurpers  helped  to 
prepare  their  own  defeat. 

For  our  present  purpose,  however,  the  main  thing 
is  to  observe  that  the  most  liberal-minded  clerics  of 
the  eleventh  and  three  following  centuries,  regulars 
as  well  as  seculars,  who  were  found  principally  in  the 
schools  and  universities,  take  their  place  in  the  ranks 
of  the  Schoolmen,  and  link  hand  to  hand  across  the 
later  Middle  Ages.  They  carry  us  forward  from 
Roscelin,  the  leader  of  the  Nominalists,  through 
Anselm,  Abelard,  Peter  Lombard,  Aquinas,  Duns 
Scotus,  Michael  of  Cesena  and  other  Franciscans, 
Marsiglio,  Bradwardine,  and  William  of  Ockham,  to 


68  John  Wyclif. 


John  Wyclif — who  in  his  turn  joins  hands  with  John 
Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague,  from  whom  the  torch 
was  passed  onward  to  the  German  and  English  Re- 
formers of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  Wyclif  was  a  School- 
man by  intellectual  descent  and  training.  At  Oxford 
he  imbibed  the  spirit  and  ideas  of  Bradwardine  and 
Ockham,  who  were  both  fellows  of  Merton  when  he 
was  studying  for  his  degrees,  and  by  whose  writings, 
if  not  by  their  personal  teaching,  he  must  have 
largely  profited.  Bradwardine,  who  became  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  died  of  the  plague  in 
1349,  on  the  morrow  of  his  admission  to  the  tempor- 
alities of  that  province,  was  anything  but  a  mere 
Schoolman,  being  not  only  a  popular  teacher  at  the 
university,  but  also  a  king's  chaplain  and  a  travelled 
man.  He  wrote  scientific  treatises  on  Proportion,  on 
The  Quadrature  of  the  Circle,  on  Speculative  Arith- 
metic, and  Speculative  Geometry,  and  on  The  Art  of 
Memory.  He  collected  his  lectures  (in  Latin)  under 
the  title  of  The  Cause  of  God  against  Pelagius,  and 
concerning  Causes  in  General,  and  dedicated  the 
book  to  his  friends  at  Merton. 

Bradwardine  has  been  claimed  as  one  of  the 
direct  forerunners  of  the  Calvinists,  and  he  certainly 
frowned  on  the  ideas  of  free-will,  the  merit  of  good 
deeds,  the  winning  of  grace  by  congruity,  and  so 
forth.  "  In  the  schools  of  the  philosophers,"  he 
writes,  "we  rarely  heard  a  word  said  concerning 
grace,  but  we  were  continually  told  that  we  were  the 
masters  of  our  own  free  actions,  and  that  it  was  in 
our  power  to  do  well  or  ill."     The  "  Profound  Doctor  " 


JOHN  DUNS  SCOTUS—  DOCTOR  SUBTILIS." 

BY  J.  FABER,  FROM  THE  OXFORD  PORTRAIT. 


Wyclif  and  the  Schoolmen.  69 


taught  that  human  nature,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
impotent  for  good,  that  the  best  deeds  of  men  are 
unmeritorious,  that  everything  worthy  comes  of  the 
free  grace  and  with  the  absolute  foreknowledge  of 
God.  His  teaching  commended  itself  not  a  little  to 
the  men  of  his  day,  and  Wyclif  was  deeply  imbued 
with  it.  Chaucer  re-echoes  his  fame,  for  he  makes 
the  Nun's  Priest  confess,  on  this  capital  distinction 
between  predestination  and  free-will, 

.  "Ine  cannot  boult  it  to  the  bran, 
As  can  the  holy  doctor,  saint  Austyn, 
Or  Boece,  or  the  bishop  Bradwardyn." 

There  is  clearly  a  sense  in  which  Bradwardine  was 
a  forerunner  of  the  Calvinists,  or  rather  of  the  earlier 
English  predestinarians.  A  familiar  passage  in 
Paradise  Lost  describes  the  occupations  of  the  fallen 
angels  : 

"  Others  apart  sat  on  a  hill  retired, 

In  thoughts  more  elevate,  and  reasoned  high 
Of  providence,  foreknowledge,  will,  and  fate, 
Fixed  fate,  free-will,  foreknowledge  absolute, 
And  found  no  end,  in  wandering  mazes  lost." 

Of  course  Milton  need  not  have  been  indebted  to 
Bradwardine  for  any  of  his  ideas,  and  yet  it  is 
possible  enough  that  he  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  the 
Schoolman.  Sir  Henry  Savile  printed  the  treatise 
against. Pelagianism  early  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  the  omnivorous  student  was  not  at  all  unlikely 
to  have  seen  this  book. 

William  of  Ockham  died  in  1357,  the  year  in 
which  Wyclif,  according  to  some  accounts,  was  made 


yo  John  Wyclif. 


a  fellow  of  Merton,  though  there  is  reason  to  doubt 
the  last-mentioned  statement.  Ockham  was  a  Fran- 
ciscan friar,  and  some  of  the  ablest  men  of  the  Order 
in  the  fourteenth  century  were  his  professed  follow- 
ers. He  had  sat  under  Duns  Scotus,  who  had  also 
been  a  fellow  of  Merton  and  a  Franciscan ;  but  in 
several  respects  the  views  of  master  and  pupil  were 
in  sharp  contrast.  Duns  was  a  Realist,  a  "  Scotist," 
a  believer  in  the  immaculate  conception  of  the 
Virgin,  a  defender  of  the  current  orthodoxy  of 
Rome.  Ockham  was  a  Nominalist,  a  champion  of 
the  Fraticelli,  not  to  say  a  Fraticello  himself,  who 
wrote  a  cogent  Defence  of  Poverty.  He  opposed  the 
extreme  political  claims  of  the  Papacy,  denied  the 
final  authority  of  the  decretal  or  canon  law,  and  held 
that  logic  was  essentially  distinct  from  and  indepen- 
dent of  theology — which,  according  to  his  enemies, 
was  the  same  thing  as  to  declare  it  of  superior 
authority.  Though  he  was  far  less  dogmatically 
assertive  in  regard  to  the  spiritual  assumptions  of 
Rome  than  some  of  his  friends,  yet  his  personal 
courage,  and  the  sacrifices  which  he  made  for  his 
belief,  were  unquestionable  ;  and  he  was  finally  ex- 
communicated. He  went  so  far  as  to  denounce 
John  XXII.  as  a  heretic ;  and,  in  the  quarrel  between 
that  Pope  and  Ludwig  of  Bavaria,  he  ranged  himself 
on  the  side  of  the  Emperor,  and  of  the  Antipope 
Nicolas. 

Ockham,  like  many  English  scholars  of  his  day, 
took  advantage  of  the  privilege  accorded  to  those 
who  wished  to  study  at  the  University  of  Paris. 
Whilst   there,   he   formed    a    close    friendship    with 


Wyclif  and  the  Schoolmen.  7 1 

Marsiglio  of  Padua  (called  also  Mainardini,  and  Men- 
andrinus),  an  ardent  sympathiser  with  the  Emperor 
Ludwig,  and  a  distinct  progenitor  of  Wyclif  in  his 
ideas  of  political  government.  Mr.  R.  L.  Poole  has 
clearly  summarised  the  arguments  of  Marsiglio  in 
his  Wycliffe  and  Movements  for  Reform,  a  volume 
which  must  be  consulted  by  any  reader  who  wishes 
to  trace  in  detail  the  descent  of  ideas,  and  especially 
of  political  ideas,  through  Marsiglio  and  Ockham  to 
Wyclif.*  Marsiglio  worked  out  his  conception  of 
the  harmony  which  should  exist  between  the  civil 
and  the  spiritual  dominion  in  his  Defensor  Pacts, 
produced  whilst  he  was  living  at  Paris  in  1324, 
which  was  probably  a  few  years  after  the  date  of 
Wyclif  s  birth,  This  work,  with  the  Dialogus  and 
De  Ecclesiastica  et  Politica  Potestate  of  Ockham,  was 
widely  read  by  his  contemporaries  and  successors ; 
and  the  literature  to  which  these  works  belong  did 
much  to  create  or  reconstruct  the  model  on  which 
our  actual  theories  of  Church  and  State  have  been 
formed. 

No  doubt  for  the  original  ideas  we  should  have  to 
go  back  at  least  as  far  as  the  political  philosophers  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  to  whom  Marsiglio  must  have 
been  more  or  less  directly  indebted  for  them. 
Prescience  and  divination  alone  could  scarcely  have 
enabled  a  Schoolman  to  evolve  from  surrounding 
chaos  the  main  political  principles  of  the  eighteenth 
century  ;  but,  whether  this  could  have  been  or  not, 
the  more  salient  of  these  principles  had  been  stated 

*  See  also  John  Wiclif  and  his  English  Precursors,  by  Prof.  G. 
V.  Lechler  ;  Lorimer's  translation. 


J  2  John  Wyclif, 


many  centuries  before,  and  only  needed  to  be  revived. 
The  mere  revival  is  infinitely  to  the  credit  of  the 
Italian  and  English  scholastic  philosophers.  To 
re-establish  such  ideas  under  such  conditions  and  cir- 
cumstances was  to  display  all  the  character  and 
effective  force  of  originality.  There  is  indeed  a  con- 
ceivable suggestion  that  the  Moors  of  Spain,  who 
gave  to  Europe  from  Arabic  sources  more  than  one 
work  of  Greek  philosophy  and  science,  had  furnished 
Marsiglio  in  the  same  manner  with  the  elements  of 
his  constitutional  treatise. 

The  central  and  most  striking  of  Marsiglio's  politi- 
cal ideas — from  which,  indeed,  his  other  political 
ideas  are  seen  to  radiate — is  that  of  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people.  The  people,  he  maintains,  must  be 
ultimate  lawgiver  and  ultimate  judge ;  the  State 
must  have  a  supreme  executive,  selected  and  author- 
ised by  itself.  "  The  king's  power  is  limited  in  every 
possible  direction.  He  has  the  eye  of  the  people  or 
its  representatives  on  all  his  actions.  He  may  be 
restrained  or  even  deposed  if  he  overpass  his  pre- 
scribed bounds  ;  and,  even  though  his  conduct  be 
not  amenable  to  the  letter  of  the  law,  he  is  still  sub- 
ject to  the  final  judgment  of  the  national  will.  On 
no  side  is  there  any  room  for  despotism  ;  in  no  point 
is  he  absolute."  *  And  Ockham,  in  the  third  part  of 
his  Dialogns,  goes  over  the  same  ground  and  arrives 
at  the  same  conclusions.  It  is  indeed  arguable 
whether  Marsiglio  or  Ockham  was  the  more  original 
writer  of  the  two.  Pope  Clement,  in  a  bull  con- 
demning the  writings  of  Marsiglio,  declared  them  to 


*  R.  L.  Poole,  as  above,  p.  31. 


Wyclif  and  the  Schoolmen.  73 

have  been  derived  from  Ockham ;  and,  so  far  as 
religious  and  merely  anti-papal  views  are  concerned, 
this  may  well  have  been  the  case. 

The  evolution  of  these  ideas  in  the  age  of  the 
Schoolmen,  where  evolution  can  be  recognised  be- 
fore the  time  of  Marsiglio,  was  a  gradual  and  tardy 
process,  limited  for  the  most  part  £0  the  antagonism 
between  Rome  and  the  secular  governments,  or  ex- 
hibiting little  more  than  a  variety  of  paraphrases 
from  Aristotle,  Albertus  Magnus,  and  Aquinas. 
Pierre  Dubois  and  John  of  Paris  had  begun  to 
emphasise  the  distinctions  between  the  authority  of 
the  Church  and  that  of  the  State.  This  was  before 
the  time  of  the  Emperor  Ludwig ;  and  it  was  Lud- 
wig's  vigorous  conflict  with  Rome,  during  the 
"  Babylonian  Captivity  "  at  Avignon,  which  set  the 
seal  of  actuality  on  what  had  hitherto  been  a  some- 
what abstract  disquisition.  Several  of  the  earlier 
Schoolmen  had  provided  arguments  against  the 
encroachments  of  the  Papacy ;  it  was  for  Marsiglio 
and  Ockham  to  erect  an  independent  system  with- 
out exclusive  reference  to  the  papal  claims. 

Lupoid  von  Bebenburg,  who  wrote  the  first  theo- 
retical work  on  German  jurisprudence,  went  a  step 
further.  Having  formulated  the  rights  of  the 
Emperor,  he  maintains  that  even  the  homage  and 
submissions  of  emperors  to  popes  cannot  wholly  com- 
mit the  subordinate  princes  and  the  people.  As  a 
tributary  prince  is  permitted,  when  his  overlord 
chooses  to  submit  himself  to  another  overlord,  to 
refuse  the  new  vassalage  for  his  own  part,  so,  if 
a   vassal   of  a  church-vassal  declines    to    become   a 


74  John  Wyclif. 


church-vassal  himself,  he  cannot  be  compelled 
thereto. 

In  the  ecclesiastical  domain  we  find  the  same  ideas 
taken  henceforth  as  the  true  basis  of  Church  govern- 
ment. The  Church  is  not  the  priestly  order  and 
hierarchy  alone,  but  the  whole  body  of  Christians. 
The  priests  have  their  functions,  but  outside  those 
functions  they  are  members  of  the  general  com- 
munity— subject  to  the  State  in  their  secular  relations 
and  to  the  Church  in  their  spiritual  relations.  Mar- 
siglio  found  no  warrant  for  a  hierarchy  in  the  New 
Testament,  nor  for  a  human  arbiter  of  orthodoxy, 
nor  for  any  temporal  visitation  of  pains  and  penalties 
on  the  ground  of  errors  in  opinion.  In  brief  the 
Christian  priesthood  ought  to  be  in  plain  truth  a 
Christian  ministry,  serving  and  not  enslaving  the 
Church. 

Evidently  Marsiglio  was  a  fourteenth-century 
protestant  of  the  most  uncompromising  order.  It 
may  be  supposed  that  he  went  too  far  for  his  friend 
Ockham,  and  too  far  for  Wyclif — at  any  rate  in 
Wyclifs  earlier  and  more  moderate  phases.  No 
doubt  this  must  always  be  a  matter  of  opinion  ;  but 
it  will  scarcely  be  denied  that  if  the  Archbishops 
Sudbury  and  Courtenay  had  resisted  the  pressure 
brought  to  bear  upon  them  by  the  monks  and  friars, 
and  treated  Wyclif  with  judicious  coolness  and 
patience,  he  might  have  stopped  short  of  some  of  his 
later  paradoxes  and  logical  extremes.  Wyclif,  who 
had  secured  the  confidence  of  his  Oxford  friends  not 
only  by  his  saintly  life  but  also  as  a  man  of  sense 
and  an  able  administrator,  was  in  many  respects  natu- 


Wyclif  and  the  Schoolmen.  75 


rally  predisposed  to  compromise.  Is  it  not  reason* 
able  to  suppose  that  the  Oxford  scholar  with  his 
secular  sympathies,  the  man  of  affairs  living  and 
working  amongst  his  own  countrymen,  the  patriot 
and  man  of  letters,*  would  have  been  well  satisfied 
to  advance  step  by  step — so  that  the  advance  was 
indisputable, — leading  and  not  outrunning  the  spirit 
of  his  times? 

An  English  clergyman  before  everything  else, 
John  Wyclif  inherited  the  ideas  of  Marsiglio  and 
Ockham  without  claiming  the  whole  of  his  inheri- 
tance. Deeply  sympathetic  for  his  unfortunate 
fellow-countrymen,  as  modest  and  simple  in  spirit 
as  he  was,  intellectually  eager  and  ambitious,  he 
aimed  at  being  an  orderly,  a  progressive,  and  yet  an 
effectual  Reformer.  It  was  only  after  the  defiance 
and  exasperation  of  his  enemies  that  he  was  forced 
into    the   attitude    of   an  open  heretic. 


*  Every  Schoolman  who  made  his  mark  must  have  studied  the 
mathematics  and  science  of  his  day.  Wyclif,  for  instance,  is  pretty 
sure  to  have  read  the  works  of  Roger  Bacon,  and  to  have  cleared  his 
mind  by  straining  it  through  the  scientific  sieve.  There  is  a  sentence 
in  the  De  Civili  Dominio  which  showed  him,  as  the  late  Prof.  Thorold 
Rogers  pointed  out,  to  be  well  acquainted  with  the  principle  of  the 
telescope  : — "  Sicut  enim,  juxta  perspectives,  contingit  per  specula 
vel  media  diversarum  dyafanitatum,  quantumlibet  parvum  per  quan- 
tamcunque  magnam  distanciam  apparere  ex  elargicione  anguli  pira- 
midis  radialis :  ita  contingit  fide  videre  ea  quae  sunt  in  principio 
mundi  et  die  judicii  ex  fideli  narracione  fidelium  sibi  succedencium 
tarn  disparium  fidei  speculorum." 


CHAPTER    V. 
wyclif's  early  days.* 


~3\£y^^y^y — jjII  H E  evidence  in  regard  to  Wyc- 
/■emt-'  lifs    birthplace    is    extremely 


i 


■©M£ 


meagre,  and,  such  as  it  is,  it 
must  be  taken  in  connection 
with  the  other  and  better  as- 
certained facts  of  his  biogra- 
phy. Sundry  considerations 
tend  to  show  that  he  was  a 
member  of  the  family  of 
Wycliffes  who  lived  on  their  own  land  at  the  village 
from  which  they  took  their  name  ;  but  it  so  happens 
that  John  Wyclif,  though  he  wrote  a  great  deal, 
made  no  reference  to  his  earliest  home  or  to  his 
parentage.  Thomas  Walsingham,  a  contemporary 
chronicler,  says  that  he  came  from  the  North  ;  but 


*  The  earlier  portion  of  this  chapter  is  identical  in  substance  with 
two  communications  made  by  the  author  to  ihe  A Ihenaum  of  March 
12  and  26,  1892. 

76 


JOHN   WYCLIF. 
(Hondius  fecit.) 


•  «   •     •  • 


1320]  Wyclifs  Early  Days.  jj 

no  one  appears  to  have  made  a  more  definite  state- 
ment until  John  Leland  (who  travelled  and  wrote  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  upwards  of  two  centuries 
after  the  event  of  which  he  speaks)  mentions  as  a 
matter  of  hearsay  that  Wyclif  was  born  at  Spreswell, 
a  good  mile  from  Richmond  in  Yorkshire.  In 
another  place  he  says  that  the  Reformer  derived  his 
origin  from  the  village  of  Wycliffe,  which  is  on  the 
river  Tees,  some  ten  miles  from  Richmond. 

These  two  statements  of  the  antiquary  have  caused 
no  slight  perplexity  amongst  later  writers.  Even  if 
they  are  consistent  with  each  other,  which  is  not 
quite  clear,  a  double  difficulty  is  created  by  the 
facts  that  there  is  no  such  place  as  Spreswell,  actually 
or  historically,  within  a  mile  or  so  of  Richmond,  and 
that  the  people  of  Wycliffe-on-Tees  have  for  many 
generations  piously  laid  claim  to  a  Spreswell — or 
Speswell — of  their  own. 

It  was  Whitaker  who  first  suggested,  in  his  History 
of  Richmondshire,  some  ninety  years  ago,  that  Spres- 
well was  only  Leland's  incorrect  rendering  of  Ips- 
well  or  Hipswell — a  village  of  this  name  still  existing 
near  Richmond.  Dr.  Shirley  preferred  to  think 
that  Leland  had  made  no  mistake,  having  written 
Ipreswell,  which  a  copyist  subsequently  converted 
into  Spreswell.  Mr.  F.  D.  Matthew  and  Mr.  Poole, 
relying  upon  Stow's  transcript  from  Leland's  work, 
maintain  that  the  copyist  actually  wrote  Ipreswell, 
and  that  the  5  first  makes  its  appearance  in  Hearne's 
printed  copy  of  the  Itinerary. 

All  this  looks  natural  enough  ;  but  it  does  not 
make  the  birth  of  a  Wycliffe  of  Wycliffe  at  Ipreswell 


1320]  Wyclifs  Early  Days.  77 

no  one  appears  to  have  made  a  more  definite  state- 
ment until  John  Leland  (who  travelled  and  wrote  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  upwards  of  two  centuries 
after  the  event  of  which  he  speaks)  mentions  as  a 
matter  of  hearsay  that  Wyclif  was  born  at  Spreswell, 
a  good  mile  from  Richmond  \w  Yorkshire.  In 
another  place  he  says  that  the  Reformer  derived  his 
origin  from  the  village  of  Wycliffe,  which  is  on  the 
river  Tees,  some  ten  miles  from  Richmond. 

These  two  statements  of  the  antiquary  have  caused 
no  slight  perplexity  amongst  later  writers.  Even  if 
they  are  consistent  with  each  other,  which  is  not 
quite  clear,  a  double  difficulty  is  created  by  the 
facts  that  there  is  no  such  place  as  Spreswell,  actually 
or  historically,  within  a  mile  or  so  of  Richmond,  and 
that  the  people  of  Wycliffe-on-Tees  have  for  many 
generations  piously  laid  claim  to  a  Spreswell — or 
Speswell — of  their  own. 

It  was  Whitaker  who  first  suggested,  in  his  History 
of  Richmondshire,  some  ninety  years  ago,  that  Spres- 
well was  only  Leland's  incorrect  rendering  of  Ips- 
well  or  Hipswell — a  village  of  this  name  still  existing 
near  Richmond.  Dr.  Shirley  preferred  to  think 
that  Leland  had  made  no  mistake,  having  written 
Ipreswell,  which  a  copyist  subsequently  converted 
into  Spreswell.  Mr.  F.  D.  Matthew  and  Mr.  Poole, 
relying  upon  Stow's  transcript  from  Leland's  work, 
maintain  that  the  copyist  actually  wrote  Ipreswell, 
and  that  the  >S  first  makes  its  appearance  in  Hearne's 
printed  copy  of  the  Itinerary. 

All  this  looks  natural  enough  ;  but  it  does  not 
make  the  birth  of  a  Wycliffe  of  Wycliffe  at  Ipreswell 


78  John  Wyclif.  H320- 

(assuming  that  Hipswell  was  once  Ipreswell)  any  the 
more  natural.  If  John  Wyclif's  birth  at  that  place 
was  remembered  more  than  two  centuries  later,  one 
would  imagine  that  it  must  have  been  on  account  of 
a  continued  residence  of  his  parents  there,  and  not 
on  the  strength  of  a  casual  visit  of  his  mother  at  the 
time  of  his  birth.  There  is  a  difficulty  in  reconciling 
the  Hipswell  theory  with  the  surmises  which  I  shall 
presently  venture  to  make  in  respect  of  the  parentage 
of  Wyclif — and  mainly  for  the  reason  just  stated. 
If  Stow's  transcript  of  Leland  be  regarded  as  finally 
establishing  the  form  "  Ipreswell,"  all  that  can  be 
said  is  that  we  have  one  reason  the  fewer  to  hesitate 
over  Leland's  statement. 

The  statement  is  not  very  definite  in  itself,  and  it 
is  introduced  with  a  couple  of  words  which  almost 
imply  that  Leland  did  not  attach  great  weight  to  it 
— not  so  much  weight,  for  instance,  as  he  attached 
to  his  independent  statement  about  the  village  of 
Wycliffe.  "  They  say  " — these  are  his  words — "  that 
John  Wiclif  Haereticus  was  borne  at  Spreswel  [Ipres- 
wel],  a  poore  village,  a  good  myle  from  Richemont." 
If  we  accept  the  Ipreswell  and  the  "  good  myle," 
there  is  still  room  for  doubt  in  the  "  Haereticus  " 
and  the  introductory  words.  Leland  merely  repeats 
a  rumour  which  he  had  not  verified  ;  and  the  fact  of 
his  stating  it  as  a  rumour  implies  that  he  thought  it 
needed  verification.  His  doubt  may  well  have  been 
the  same  as  our  own  ;  it  must  have  appeared  strange 
to  him  that  a  Wycliffe  of  Wycliffe  should  have  been 
born  at  Ipreswell ;  and,  again,  he  would  be  quite 
alive  to  the  possibility  that  any  Wyclifle,  or  even 


1369]  Wyclif's  Early  Days,  79 

Whitcliffe,  reputed  to  have  lived  at  Ipreswell  two 
hundred  years  ago,  would  tend  to  become  identified 
with  the  famous  "  heretic  "  who  gave  Englishmen 
their  open  Bible. 

The  local  tradition  of  a  Spreswell  close  to  the 
village  of  Wycliffe,  which  has  beeji  accepted  by  Dr. 
Vaughan,  and  also  by  Professor  Lechler,  presents 
various  difficulties,  and  must  be  treated  with  particu- 
lar caution,  because  one  would  be  decidedly  glad  to 
believe  it.  According  to  this  tradition,  Spreswell 
was  no  mere  figment  of  a  name,  and  still  less  Ipres- 
well or  Hipswell,  but  an  actual  hamlet  or  thorp, 
within  the  manor  of  the  Wycliffes,  and  about  half 
a  mile  from  the  present  village  of  Wycliffe-on-Tees. 
Certain  evidence  in  support  of  this  contention  has 
been  adduced  by  the  Rev.  John  Erskine,  now  Rector 
of  Wycliffe.     The  evidence  consists  of  : 

1.  A  letter  from  William  Chapman,  133  Church 
Street,  Monkwearmouth  (January  14,  1884),  to  the 
Rev.  J.  Erskine: 

"  I  saw  an  account  of  the  intended  '  Restoration 
of  Wycliffe  Church,  which  stands  close  to  Wycliffe 
Hall,  the  supposed  birthplace  of  Wycliffe.'  Leland, 
the  historian,  says  Wycliffe  was  born  at  Spreswell, 
near  Richmond.  I  enclose  a  copy  of  a  statement 
made  by  my  great-grandfather,  John  Chapman,  who 
died  1849,  aged  eighty-one  years,  at  Alwent  Hall, 
Gainford." 

2.  The  statement  of  John  Chapman  : 

u  Spreswell  or  Speswell  stood  half  a  mile  west 
from  Wycliffe,  and  on  the  same  side  and  close  to  the 
River  Tees.     The  Plough  has  passed   over  its  site, 


So  John  Wyclif.  £1320 


and  all  is  quite  level.  There  was  a  Chapel  there,  in 
which  were  married  William  Yarker  and  Penetent 
Johnson,  and  there  [sic]  son  John  Yarker  has  many 
times  related  the  occurance  to  his  Grandson,  the 
Writer  of  this.  The  above  coupel  were  the  last  mar- 
ried there,  for  the  Chapel  soon  after  fell  down. 
Francis  Wycliffe  of  Barnard  Castle,  the  last  of  the 
Wycliffes  in  the  Neighbourhood,  said  John  the 
Reformer  was  born  at  the  above  Village. — John 
Chapman,  Headlam,  June  2ist,   1839." 

3.  Mr.  Erskine  says  : 

"  The  tradition  of  Wycliffe  having  been  born  in 
this  parish  [Wycliffe-on-Tees]  has  existed  for  over 
two  hundred  years,  while  there  is  no  trace  of  him  or 
tradition  at  Hipswell  .  .  .  Might  not  Spreswell 
be  a  corruption  of  Thorpeswell  ?  There  is  a  manor 
house  in  the  township  of  Thorpe,  and  there  are  ruins 
of  a  village  close  to  it.  I  have  also  in  my  possession 
part  of  the  mullion  of  a  church  window,  and  a 
piscina,  which  were  found  in  the  pulling  down  of  an 
old  wall  on  the  property.  The  former  might  have 
been  carried  away  from  the  east  window  of  our 
church,  but  the  latter  could  not,  as  it  is  in  perfect 
preservation,  while  two  in  the  church  are  broken 
close  off  by  the  wall.  The  property  of  Thorpe 
belonged  to  the  Wilkinsons  of  Richmond,  who  pur- 
chased it  from  the  Wycliffes  .  .  .  The  man  who 
gave  me  the  piscina  said  that  his  great-grandfather 
spoke  of  the  chapel  at  Thorpe,  and  that  after  the 
marriage  of  the  two  persons  named  in  Mr.  Chap- 
man's letter  the  roof  fell  in  .  .  .  There  was  a 
village  close  to  Thorpe   Hall,  as  there  are  traces  of 


1369]  Wyclifs  Early  Days.  8 1 

foundations  of  houses,  and,  as  some  believe,  also 
of  the  village  stocks." 

Now,  of  course,  this  theory  of  a  Speswell-on-Tees 
imposes  on  its  advocates  the  necessity  of  explaining 
away  Leland's  "  good  myle  from  Richemont." 
Some  have  evolved  an  Old  Richmond  on  the  river 
bank,  three  or  four  miles  below  Wycliffe,  and  have 
interpreted  the  "  good  myle  "  in  the  sense  of  a  Scot's 
"  mile  and  a  bit,"  where  the  bit  is  apt  to  be  more 
than  the  mile.  There  is  now  on  the  same  spot  a 
village  called  Barforth,  which,  according  to  Lewis's 
Topographical  Dictio7iaryy  was  "  formerly  called 
Old  Richmond  "  ;  and  a  place  of  this  name  appears 
in  Carey's  map  of  the  North  Riding  of  Yorkshire. 
The  evidence  is  very  recent,  and — as  "  Richemont  " 
was  in  its  present  position  long  before  Leland's  time 
— we  should  hardly  be  any  better  off  if  we  were  to 
accept  it.  Others  say  that  the  antiquary  was  well 
informed  as  to  Spreswell,  but  ill  informed  as  to  the 
distance  from  Richmond  ;  and  with  respect  to  this 
alternative  it  is  only  fair  to  remember  that  Leland 
or  his  informers  made  some  curious  mistakes  in 
matters  of  locality  and  distance.  There  are  at  least 
two  of  these  mistakes  in  the  Itinerary  within  fifty 
lines  of  the  passage  which  has  given  so  much  trouble 
to  the  biographers  of  Wyclif,  from  which  it  would 
seem  that  Leland  had  no  very  clear  and  precise 
picture  of  the  Richmondshire  country  in  his  mind. 

Without  building  anything  upon  the  name  of 
Spreswell — and  it  is  as  easy  to  conclude  that  the 
local  tradition  refers  to  Thorpeswell  as  that  Leland's 
original  was  the  otherwise  undistinguished  village  of 


82  John  Wyclif.  N320- 

Hipswell — there  is  evidence  as  to  a  group  of  houses 
close  to  the  manor  house  where  the  Wycliffes  lived, 
and  nearer  to  it  than  the  village  of  Wycliffe  was. 
Nothing  is  more  likely  than  that  there  should  have 
been  a  little  thorp  and  a  chapel  near  the  gates  of 
the  manor  house  other  than  the  village  and  the 
church  of  Wycliffe.  We  know,  in  fact,  that  there 
was  a  Thorp  as  early  as  the  thirteenth  century  which 
formed  part  of  the  Wycliffe  estate  ;  and  if  there  was 
no  chapel  at  that  early  date  one  would  almost  cer- 
tainly have  been  built  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
family  remained  staunchly  Romanist  to  the  last,  and 
intermarried  with  Rokebys,  Coniers,  Constables, 
and  Tunstalls,  though  on  the  ground  of  their  reli- 
gion they  could  no  longer  present  to  the  living  of 
Wycliffe.  A  private  chapel  of  some  kind  would  be 
a  necessity  for  them  as  soon  as  the  Reformation  had 
made  headway,  and  this  may  well  have  been  the 
chapel  in  which  Penitent  Johnson  was  married 
towards  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

It  is  but  a  melancholy  picture  which  is  presented 
to  us  of  these  Richmondshire  Wycliffes,  poor  in  purse, 
proscribed  in  religion,  proud  of  heart,  gradually 
fading  away  amongst  the  more  substantial  Northern 
Catholics,  sternly  repudiating  the  one  strong  mem- 
ber of  their  race  who  ranks  with  the  great  Worthies 
of  England,  and  owing  much  of  their  later  mis- 
fortune to  the  obstinacy  with  which  they  cherished 
the  discarded  faith.  The  last  of  the  Wycliffes  was 
a  poor  gardener,  who  dined  every  Sunday  at  Thorpe 
Hall,  as  the  guest  of  Sir  MarmadukeTunstall,  on  the 
strength  of  his  reputed  descent, 


13691  Wyclif  s  Early  Days.  83 

It  would  be  impossible  to  speak  with  confidence 
as  to  the  origin  of  this  family  of  Wycliffes.  There 
is  nothing  to  show  whether  they  were  Norman  or 
English.  The  local  surname  would  be  natural 
enough  in  either  case,  and  it  is  no  more  difficult  to 
conceive  a  man  of  English  origin  bearing  a  Norman 
patronymic  than  it  is  to  think  of  Anglo-Normans  in 
the  eighth  or  tenth  generation  who  had  lost  their 
Norman  characteristics   and    their  Norman  speech. 

Wycliffe  means  "  the  water  cliff."  It  is  not  the 
same  name  as  that  derived  from  "  the  white  cliff," 
although  the  latter  name  also  came  to  be  written 
Wycliffe.  The  point  is  significant.  There  is  a  white 
cliff  near  Hipswell,  and  a  hamlet  called  Whitcliff, 
which  has  been  suggested  as  the  place  from  which 
the  Reformer  took  his  name.  But  it  is  worthy  of 
note  that  although  we  find  more  than  twenty  varia- 
tions in  the  spelling  of  this  name,*  it  was  never  (so 
far  as  I  am  aware)  spelt  with  a  /,  though  John 
Wycliffe  of  Mayfield  is  occasionally  called  Whitcliffe. 

As  for  the  baptismal  name  of  John,  it  was  already 
more  employed  than  any  other ;  it  was  even  in 
higher  favour  in  the  fourteenth  century  than  it  is  in 
the  nineteenth.  If  we  can  point  to  only  two  French 
kings  and  one  English  king  of  that  name,  there  had 
been  twenty-two  Pope  Johns  when  Wyclif  was  born. 
There  is  scarcely  a  list  of  proper  names  in  the  cen- 
tury wherein  the  Johns  do  not  show  a  remarkable 


*  Wycliffe,  Wycliff,  Wyclif,  Wyclyffe,  Wyclef,  Wyccliff,  Wyc- 
clyff,  Wycklef,  Wyclyve,  Wyckliff,  Wykliffe,  Wykliff,  Wykclyff, 
Wykclyffe,  Wyklive,  Wicliffe,  Wicliff,  Wiclif,  Wicleff,  Wiclef,  Wic- 
clyff,  Wickcliffe,  Wicklef,  Wigclif. 


84  John  Wyclif.  11320- 


predominance.  In  Courtenay's  Synod  of  1382, 
for  instance,  seventy-three  theologians  and  lawyers 
took  part,  and  twenty-six  of  them  were  named 
John.  Again,  out  of  the  twelve  doctors  assembled 
at  Oxford  by  William  Berton,  who  agreed  in 
his  condemnation  of  Wyclif  s  opinions  in  1381,  no 
fewer  than  nine  were  Johns.  One  of  the  writers  of 
the  Chronicon  Anglic? ,  probably  himself  a  John, 
referring  in  a  certain  passage  to  Wyclif,  says 
quaintly :  "  This  fellow  was  called  John — but  he  did 
not  deserve  to  be.  For  he  had  cast  away  the  grace 
which  God  gave  him,  turning  from  the  truth  which  is 
in  God,  and  giving  himself  up  to  fables." 

If  we  are  tempted  to  look  with  some  doubt  on  the 
Hipswell  conjecture,  and  to  nurse  the  idea  that  John 
Wyclif  was  born  in  the  home  of  the  Wycliffes,  we 
shall  gain  additional  support  for  the  general  belief  of 
the  past  five  centuries  that  the  father  of  the  English 
Reformation  was  a  scion  of  one  of  the  most  devout 
Catholic  families  of  the  North,  the  head  of  which 
was  lord  of  the  manor  of  Wycliffe-on-Tees.  Let  us 
see  what  contemporary  records  have  to  tell  us  about 
the  Plantagenet  Wycliffes. 

The  genealogy  preserved  by  the  Wycliffe  family, 
which  will  be  found  recorded  in  Whitaker's  Rich- 
Ptondskire,  includes  three  generations  admitted  to 
be  insufficiently  proved.*     They  are  given  in  the  fol- 

*  Before  a  historical  student  could  use  a  document  of  this  kind 
with  any  degree  of  confidence,  he  would  need  to  know  the  pedigree 
of  the  pedigree.  Nothing  more  is  claimed  for  the  genealogy  here 
quoted  than  that  it  preserves  the  traditions  of  the  Wycliffe  family  at 
a  comparatively  late  date,  and  that  its  accuracy  in  a  number  of 
particulars  is  supported  by  independent  historical  evidence. 


1369]  Wyclifs  Early  Days.  85 

lowing  form — except  that  the  dotted    line   is   here 
introduced  by  way  of  conjecture  : 

Robert  de  Wycliff,  Lord  of  Wycliffe,  &c,  6  Edward  I.,  by  Kirkby's 
Inquest,  1287  [1278],  held  12  car[ucates]  of  land,  &c,  in  Wycliffe, 
Thorp,  and  Girlington  ;  married  ? — ? 

I 
Roger  Wycliffe,  Lord  of  Wy-  =  Catherine,   his   wife,    buried    at 

cliffe,  &c,  1319  ;    buried  at     |  Wycliffe. 

Wycliffe. 


T  JohnWyclif  "1  William  Wycliffe  of 

[_•'  Haereticus."J  Wycliffe,  esquire  (married). 

Now  if  the  date  13 19  above  given  is  that  of  the 
marriage  of  Roger,  which  is  probable  (since  Cath- 
erine Wycliffe  was  still  living  in  1369),  it  is  a  note- 
worthy coincidence  that  the  year  1320  has  generally 
been  accepted,  on  independent  grounds,  as  the  ap- 
proximate date  of  John  Wyclifs  birth.  But  there  is 
more  substantial  evidence  than  this  for  the  belief  that 
Roger  and  Catherine  Wycliffe  were  the  actual  father 
and  mother  of  the  future  divinity  lecturer  at  Oxford- 
Another  link  in  the  chain  is  supplied  by  a  close  cata- 
logue of  rectors  of  Wycliffe,  quoted  in  Torre's  Arch- 
deaconry of  Richmond,  from  which  the  following 
entries  are  taken : 

Daie.  Rectors.  Patrons. 

2  Aug.  1362         Dns  Robert  de  Wycliffe,  CI.          Kath.  relicta  Rogi. 

Wicliffe 
7  Aug.  1363         Dns  William  de  Wycliffe  John  de  Wycliffe 

7  Oct.  1369  Dns  Henr.  Hugate,  Cap.  iidem. 

The  significance  of  the  "  iidem  "  will  be  at  once  ap- 
parent. In  1362  Roger  Wycliffe  was  dead,  and  the 
vacancy  in  the  family  living  was  supplied  by  his 
widow  Catherine,  who  nominated  Robert  Wycliffe. 


86  John  Wyclif.  N320- 

It  need  not  be  concluded  from  the  genealogy 
already  quoted  that  Roger  Wycliffe  had  no  brother, 
and  only  one  son.  The  later  Wycliffes  had  numer- 
ous families,  and  that  was  probably  enough  the  case 
with  Robert  and  Roger.  At  any  rate,  there  was  a 
Robert  de  Wycliffe,  clerk,  ready  to  take  the  living  in 
1362;  and  when  he  died,  a  year  later,  William  de 
Wycliffe  of  Balliol  College  was  appointed  by  John 
de  Wycliffe  to  succeed  him.  Who  was  this  John  de 
Wycliffe  ?  Observe  that  Dame  Catherine  had  nomi- 
nated in  1362,  possibly  after  consulting  John  ;  that 
John  nominated  in  1363,  possibly  consulting  Dame 
Catherine;  and  that  in  1369  there  was  admittedly  a 
consultation  between  Catherine  and  John,  resulting 
in  their  joint  nomination  of  Henry  Hugate.  Who 
could  this  John  de  Wycliffe  be  except  the  eldest  son 
of  Roger  and  Catherine,  legally  the  lord  of  the 
manor,  but  leaving  some  of  (perhaps  nearly  all)  the 
duties  and  privileges  of  the  lordship  to  his  mother  ? 
The  varying  exercise  of  this  patronage,  as  shown  in 
the  close  catalogue,  would  be  adequately  explained 
on  the  supposition  that  John  de  Wycliffe  was  the 
eldest  son  of  Roger,  himself  lord  of  the  manor,  an 
absentee  from  his  small  estate,  living  on  his  earned 
income  as  a  secular  priest  and  an  Oxford  lecturer, 
and  leaving  the  management  of  the  Wycliffe  prop- 
erty to  his  widowed  mother.  In  brief,  the  circum- 
stances would  be  well  explained  by  assuming  that 
John  Wyclif,  the  Reformer,  was  the  son  and  heir  of 
Roger  Wycliffe. 

If  we  are  to  be  satisfied  with  this  explanation,  and 
to  adopt  it  as  a  trustworthy  detail  of  biography,  our 


>-  j 


<    <y 

UJ    S 

2   E 


13691  Wyclifs  Early  Days.  Sy 

conviction  must  be  the  result  of  a  series  of  inferences, 
for  it  is  idle  to  expect  absolute  proof  after  the  lapse 
of  five  centuries.  It  will  be  said  that  the  fact  of  a 
John  Wycliffe  acting  in  1363  and  1369  as  patron  of 
the  living,  whilst  it  proves  that  there  was  a  lord  of 
the  manor  bearing  that  name  in  the  years  just 
mentioned,  does  not  prove  that  he  was  John  "  the 
Heretic."  True  ;  but  let  us  not  miss  the  significance 
of  the  fact  that  no  John  Wycliffe  at  all  is  shown  in 
the  genealogy,  as  preserved  in  the  family  records. 
The  close  catalogue,  which  would  not  be  in  the  keep- 
ing of  the  Wycliffes,  retains  the  name  of  John  as 
patron  of  the  living  of  Wycliffe,  with  the  strong  pre- 
sumption that  he  was  lord  of  the  manor  during  the 
widowhood  of  Dame  Catherine.  The  genealogy, 
which  is  full  and  uninterrupted  from  the  middle  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  makes  not  the  slightest  refer- 
ence to  him.  What  is  the  reasonable,  not  to  say  the 
necessary,  inference  ?  Clearly  that  this  John  Wycliffe 
had  been  deliberately  erased  from  the  record,  for 
some  reason  which  commended  itself  to  this  excep- 
tionally devout  and  consistent  family  of  Romanists. 

According  to  the  genealogy,  it  should  have  been 
William  Wycliffe  who  appointed  his  namesake  of 
Balliol  after  the  death  of  his  father.  If  he  was  alive 
in  1 363,  John  must  surely  have  been  his  elder  brother. 
If  he  was  dead,  John  may  have  been  his  next  brother, 
or  conceivably  his  uncle ;  for  it  is  possible  (though 
clearly  improbable)  that  13 19  is  the  date  of  Roger's 
birth.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  John  "  Haereticus  "  refers 
in  one  of  his  Determinations  to  a  brother  "  olim 
mortuum"     In  any  case  John  Wycliffe  was  an  im- 


88  John  Wyclif.  ti320- 


portant  member  of  the  family,  and  he  ought  to  be 
shown  on  the  family  tree.     Why  is  he  not  ? 

To  such  as  feel  a  special  interest  in  the  personality 
of  John  Wyclif  the  Reformer  it  will  be  a  matter  of 
secondary  concern  whether  he  was  or  was  not  the 
son  and  heir  of  Roger,  lord  of  Wycliffe,  and  of  Cath- 
erine his  wife.  But  his  identification  with  the 
patron  of  Wycliffe  rectory  in  1363  and  1369  would 
tend  to  confirm  our  belief  in  his  absolutely  disinter- 
ested character,  and  in  the  sincerity  of  his  profession 
of  ecclesiastical  poverty.  The  identification  is  mani- 
festly assisted  by  the  circumstances  connected  with 
the  two  nominations  in  question.  John  Wyclif  was 
Master  of  Balliol  up  to  1361,  when  he  took  the  col- 
lege living  of  Fillingham.  The  rectors  appointed  to 
Wycliffe  in  1363  and  1369  were  both  of  them  Balliol 
men. 

If  Wyclif  was  legally  lord  of  the  manor,  then  we 
possess,  to  begin  with,  a  remarkable  testimony  to  the 
nobility  and  thoroughness  of  his  personal  character ; 
and  the  whole  tenor  of  his  after  life  is  such  as  to 
strengthen  and  deepen  this  first  impression.  The 
manor  of  Wycliffe  was  720  acres — equivalent  to  a 
knight's  fee* ;  and  the  rectory  was  worth  £\<\  \2s  id. 
As  living  was  interpreted  in  those  days,  there  was  a 
competence  both  for  the  esquire  and  for  the  rector. 
During  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  money  was  found, 
from  one  source  or  another,  to  restore  the  fabric  of 
the  church. 


*  Duodecim     carucatae     faciunt     unum     fnedum     Militis. — F/etat 
ii.    72.  iv, 


13691  Wyclij's  Early  Days.  89 

At  some  date  which  cannot  be  determined,  John 
Wyclif  came  up  to  Oxford  ;  and  here  he  prepared 
himself  for  the  secular  priesthood,  probably  as  a 
scholar  of  Balliol  College,  which  had  recently  been 
founded  by  John  Balliol  of  Barnard  Castle.  This 
Barnard  Castle,  about  ten  miles .  from  Richmond, 
stands  on  the  northern  side  of  the  Durham  border, 
and  looks  up  the  splendid  vista  of  Teesdale.  It  was 
the  same  Barnard  Castle  at  which,  on  the  morrow  of 
the  fight  of  Marston  Moor,  a  degenerate  Wycliffe 
paid  the  penalty  of  his  treachery,  and  furnished  a 
theme  for  the  author  of  Rokeby. 

The  foundation  and  enlargement  of  the  earlier 
colleges  at  Oxford  were  stimulated  at  times  by  other 
reasons  than  the  desire  of  benevolent  persons  to  es- 
tablish homes  for  poor  students  at  what  was  now 
recognised  as  the  "second  school  of  the  Church." 
There  were  already  scores  of  halls  at  Oxford,  as  well 
as  the  houses  of  the  various  Orders  ;  and  it  was  not 
even  necessary  that  the  boys  and  young  men  who 
attended  the  lectures  of  the  professors  should  reside 
in  dwellings  licensed  for  their  reception,  though 
doubtless  many  of  them  did  so.  Poverty  was  no 
bar  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries 
against  an  education  at  Oxford.  Many  a  penniless 
lad  begged  his  way  to  the  famous  home  of  learning, 
and,  once  there,  begged  his  sustenance  from  day  to 
day,  content  if  he  could  keep  body  and  soul  together 
— which,  it  may  be  feared,  was  by  no  means  always 
possible.  For  the  vast  majority  of  Oxford  students, 
life  was  hard  and  precarious  at  the  best,  and  sur- 
rounded by  conditions  of  violence  which  often  flared 


90  John  Wyclif.  [1320- 

up  into  bloodthirsty  riots.  The  grammar  schools 
and  licensed  halls  were  a  partial  protection  against 
the  townspeople,  but  scarcely  any  against  the  fac- 
tion-fights within  the  University  itself. 

In  view  of  these  and  other  dangers — amongst 
which  the  proselytism  of  the  monks  and  friars  must 
have  seemed  to  many  parents  the  most  formidable 
of  all — the  colleges  of  Merton,  Balliol,  and  Univer- 
sity, followed  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  Queen's, 
Oriel,  and  Exeter,  were  founded  not  so  much  to  bring 
education  at  Oxford  within  the  reach  of  the  poor  as 
to  make  the  conditions  of  university  life  more  safe, 
more  tolerable,  and  more  refined.  It  is  not  without 
significance,  if  we  bear  in  mind  the  constant  rivalry 
of  the  Northern  and  Southern  "  nations  "  amongst 
the  students,  and  the  superior  number  and  strength 
of  the  latter,  that  two  out  of  the  first  three  colleges, 
Balliol  and  University,  were  founded  for  students 
from  the  North  of  England.  Merton  had  led  the 
way  by  accepting  none  but  Southerners  ;  and  these 
sharp  distinctions  would  naturally  have  the  effect  of 
intensifying  the  rivalry  of  the  two  nations. 

Now  for  such  comforts  and  immunity  as  these  en- 
dowed and  comparatively  well-disciplined  colleges 
afforded,  it  'would  be  necessary  in  one  form  or 
another  to  pay.  To  live  at  one  of  them  would  be 
more  expensive  than  to  put  up  with  the  rough  lod- 
ging and  fare  of  a  "  chamber  dekyn,"  or  to  enter  at 
the  average  hall ;  and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
a  student  at  Balliol  or  Merton,  unless  he  came  to 
Oxford  at  the  charges  of  a  wealthy  patron,  must 
have   belonged  to  a  fairly  prosperous  family.     Ac- 


1369]  Wyclif  s  Early  Days,  91 

cording  to  an  undisturbed  tradition,  John  Wyclif 
was  a  scholar  at  Balliol,  either  as  soon  as  he  came  up 
or  after  preliminary  training  at  a  grammar  school. 
He  afterwards  became  fellow  and  master  of  the  col- 
lege. Under  the  Balliol  statutes  no  one  could  be 
made  master  who  was  not  already  a  fellow ;  and, 
though  the  condition  might  be  literally  fulfilled  by 
electing  an  outsider  successively  fellow  and  master, 
this  supposition  seems  to  be  more  hazardous  than  to 
accept  the  statement  that  Balliol  was  originally 
Wyclif  s  college.  But  there  is  no  record,  so  far  as 
is  known,  of  the  date  when  he  came  into  residence, 
either  at  Oxford  or  at  Balliol. 

As  Wyclif  was  a  fellow,  and  as  he  would  doubt- 
less specialise  in  theology  as  early  as  possible,  it  may 
be  supposed  that  the  fellowship  which  he  accepted 
was  a  clerical  one.  Now  it  is  on  record  that,  up  to 
the  year  1340,  no  fellow  of  Balliol  was  allowed  to 
proceed  to  a  degree  in  theology,  whereas  in  that  year 
six  fellowships  were  founded  on  the  express  condi- 
tion that  their  holders  should  incept  in  divinity 
within  thirteen  years.  Wyclif  was  a  Bachelor  of  Di- 
vinity in  1366,  but  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  he 
had  not  taken  that  degree  several  years  earlier.  If 
he  was  bent  on  remaining  at  Oxford,  and  remaining 
as  a  secular  clergyman  devoted  to  the  study  of  the- 
ology, it  seems  likely  that  he  would  have  sought  to 
gain  a  footing  in  some  other  college  after  incepting 
as  a  Master  of  Arts,  unless  the  theological  fellow- 
ships had  been  endowed  at  the  time  when  he  took 
that  degree.  The  approximate  age  at  which  the 
M.A.  degree  was  taken  in  those  days  may  be  put  at 


92  Johii  Wyclif.  [1320 

twenty.  So  far,  then,  as  there  is  any  force  in  these 
considerations,  it  may  be  inferred  that  Wyclif  was 
not  more  than  twenty  years  old  in  1340;  and  this 
would  point  to  1320  as  the  earliest  probable  date  of 
his  birth.  Since  he  died  a  fairly  old  and  broken  man 
in  1384,  it  does  not  appear  to  be  safe  to  assign  a 
later  date. 

During  the  third  and  fourth  decades  of  his  life, 
Wyclif  must  have  been  accumulating  the  stores  of 
learning  on  which  his  academic  repute  was  primarily 
founded.  Above  all  he  would  be  deeply  immersed 
in  the  study  of  the  Schoolmen,  with  whose  writings 
he  afterward  showed  a  familiar  acquaintance.  It  has 
been  said  that  he  probably  had  the  opportunity  of 
listening  to  Bradwardine  and  Ockham.  Marsiglio's 
Defensor  Pacis  would  be  easily  within  his  reach.  The 
famous  Bishop  Grosteste,  whom  the  Schoolmen 
called  Lincolniensis,  was  still  a  name  to  charm  with 
in  Oxford.  The  Franciscan  Bacon  thought  him  pre- 
eminent in  the  sciences,  and  even  John  Tyssyngton 
— a  doughty  opponent  of  Wyclif — declared  that  he 
paled  the  modern  doctors  as  the  sun  paled  the  moon. 
Matthew  of  Paris  wrote  of  him  that  "  he  was  a  mani- 
fest confuter  of  the  pope  and  the  king,  the  blamer 
of  prelates,  the  corrector  of  monks,  the  director  of 
priests,  the  instructor  of  clerks,  the  support  of  schol- 
ars, a  preacher  to  the  people,  the  persecutor  of  the 
incontinent,  the  sedulous  student  of  all  scripture,  the 
hammer  and  the  despiser  of  the  Romans.  At  the 
table  of  bodily  refreshment  he  was  hospitable,  elo- 
quent, courteous,  pleasant,  and  affable."  Strike  out 
the  single  word  "king,"  and  this  character  would  ap- 


1369]  Wyclif  s  Early  Days.  93 

ply  with  remarkable  precision  to  Wyclif  himself,  who 
took  Grosteste  as  a  model  for  imitation. 

There  was  another  man  who  undoubtedly  had  a 
strong  and  a  personal  influence  on  the  character  of 
Wyclif,  one  of  the  latest  and  broadest  of  the  School- 
men, Archbishop  Fitzralph  of  Armagh,  who  was 
much  at  Oxford  up  to  the  year  1547.  During  the 
last  ten  years  of  his  life  (1350-60),  Fitzralph  threw 
himself  into  the  controversy  on  evangelical  poverty, 
carried  to  Avignon  the  grievances  of  the  secular 
clergy  against  the  mendicant  friars,  and  wrote 
(amongst  other  works)  a  book  on  The  Poverty  of 
Our  Saviour — in  which,  however,  he  dwelt  but  lightly 
on  the  contrast  between  the  life  of  Christ  and  that 
of  his  latter-day  disciples,  which  had  been  so  deeply 
resented  from  the  Italian  Fraticelli.  Some  of  the 
latter  had  contended  that  Jesus  himself  begged  for 
his  living,  which  the  Irish  prelate  strongly  denied, 
and  which  Wyclif  even  denounced  as  blasphemous. 
Fitzralph  was  on  excellent  terms  with  Popes  Clement 
and  Innocent  ;  but  the  friars  had  made  their  posi- 
tion too  strong  to  be  seriously  affected,  even  by  the 
great  "  Armachanus,"  or  by  the  "  Doctor  Evangeli- 
cus  "  (as  Wyclif  came  to  be  called),  who  took  up  the 
case  against  them  from  the  relaxing  fingers  of  his 
friend  and  counsellor. 

It  was  in  the  very  year  of  Fitzralph's  death  that 
we  find  Wyclif,  now  about  forty  years  old,  engaged 
at  Oxford  in  the  earliest  stage  of  an  acute  struggle  be- 
tween the  authorities  and  the  friars,which  endured  for 
something  like  six  years.  The  friars  wanted  to  have 
the  privilege  of  proceeding  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  in 


94  John   Wyclif.  [1320- 


Divinity  without  previously  qualifying  as  "  regents 
in  arts,"  but  their  claims  were  firmly  resisted  by  the 
authorities  and  the  seculars.  Wyclif  would  be  asso- 
ciated in  this  controversy  with  John  Thoresby,  after- 
wards Archbishop  of  York,  with  his  life-long  friend 
Nicholas  Hereford,  with  Uhtred  Bolton,  Walter  Bryt, 
Philip  Norris,  and  others. 

Meanwhile  Wyclif  had  become  Master  of  Balliol ; 
and  here  again  we  are  baffled  by  the  extraordinary 
want  of  accurate  detail  by  which  his  life  is  dogged. 
It  is  a  mere  matter  of  conjecture  in  what  year, 
between  1356  and  1361,  he  was  elected  to  this 
honourable  position.  Amongst  the  deeds  preserved 
by  Balliol  College  there  are  several  notarial  docu- 
ments showing  how,  as  proctor  for  the  college,  he 
went  down  to  Abbotsley  on  the  8th  of  April,  1361, 
together  with  one  of  his  colleagues  and  an  inde- 
pendent notary  public,  and  formally  took  possession 
of  the  church  and  rectory  on  behalf  of  his  college. 
He  duly  seized  the  ring  on  the  church  door,  smote  the 
bells,  touched  and  handled  the  "  ornaments,"  received 
oblations  and  young  pigeons,  and  freely  disposed  of 
the  same.  The  documents  are  very  particular.  In 
one  of  them  Wyclif  is  described  as  "  Magister 
Johannes  de  WyclifT,  Magister,  sive  Custos,  Collegii 
Aulse  de  Balliolo."  In  another  document  the 
"  college  of  the  said  hall "  of  Balliol  is  represented 
as  being  made  up  of  "  Master  John  de  Wykclyff,  Sir 
Hugh  de  Wakfeld  "  (who  was  a  notary  public),  "  John 
de  Hugat,  John  de  Prestwold,  Roger  de  Gysburgh, 
Willian  Alayn,  Thomas    de    Lincoln,    William    de 


WYCLIFFE   CHURCH. 

PARTLY    CONTEMPORANEOUS   WITH    WYCLIF<?1 


13691  Wy clips  Early  Days.  95 


Wykclyffe,  Richard  de  Assewelle,  John  Bridde,  and 
Hugh  de  Feltone." 

It  is  particularly  unfortunate  that  so  much  ob- 
scurity rests  upon  the  details  of  Wyclifs  career  at 
Oxford,  since,  as  Mr.  Brodrick  observes  in  his  short 
history  of  the  University,  "  the  biography  of  this 
remarkable  man,  if  authentic  materials  for  it  existed, 
would  cover  almost  the  whole  academic  history  of 
Oxford  during  the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth 
century."  There  is  an  entry  of  one  John  Wyclif 
in  the  books  of  Merton  College  as  a  fellow  in  1356 ; 
but  it  is  highly  improbable  that  this  was  our  Wyclif. 
There  is  apparently  nothing  authentic  to  support 
the  identification,  and  the  presumption  in  favour  of 
concluding  that  the  Reformer  was  a  fellow  of  Balliol 
in  the  year  just  named  is  decidedly  strong.  So  far 
as  precise  records  go,  all  that  we  can  say  is  that  he 
was  Master  of  that  college  in  April  and  in  July,  1361. 
He  may  have  held  the  office  for  one  or  more  years, 
since  there  is  no  record  of  a  predecessor  after  William 
of  Kingston,  who  followed  Robert  of  Derby,  Master 
at  the  end  of  1356.  As  no  precise  dates  seemed  to 
have  been  preserved  between  the  two  just  men- 
tioned, but  only  the  facts  that  Robert  of  Derby  was 
Master  in  1356  and  that  Wyclif  succeeded  William 
of  Kingston,  it  is  just  conceivable  that  Wyclif  may 
have  been  Master  for  as  long  a  time  as  four  years. 
At  any  rate  he  accepted,  in  1361,  the  college  living 
of  Fillingham,  in  the  archdeaconry  of  Stow,  in  the 
diocese  of  Lincoln,  being  instituted  as  rector  on 
the  1 6th  of  May. 


96  John  Wyclif.  [1320- 

The  next  established  incidents  in  his  career  bring 
us  face  to  face  with  certain  facts  already  referred  to, 
which  possess  considerable  importance  from  several 
points  of  view.  Not  long  after  he  had  become  Rector 
of  Fillingham,  in  the  course  of  the  year  1363,  John 
de  Wycliffe  presented  William  de  Wycliffe,  a  clerical 
fellow  of  Balliol,  to  the  rectory  of  Wycliffe-on-Tees. 
And  on  the  next  voidance  of  that  living,  in  the  year 
1369,  John  de  Wycliffe  is  again  recorded  as  having 
presented  a  Balliol  man,  in  the  person  of  Henry 
Hugate — probably  a  relative  of  the  John  Hugate 
who  succeeded  Wyclif  as  Master  of  the  college. 

It  is  a  coincidence  that  he  came  up  to  Oxford  from 
Fillingham  on  each  of  the  two  occasions  when 
Wycliffe-on-Tees  fell  vacant — in  1363,  when  he  took 
rooms  at  Queen's  College,  and  again  in  1368,  when 
his  bishop  gave  him  a  prolonged  leave  of  absence,  in 
order  that  he  might  "  devote  himself  to  the  study  of 
letters  at  Oxford."  He  may  or  may  not  have  heard 
in  1368  that  the  family  living  was  about  to  be 
vacated.  In  any  case  he  would  be  in  Oxford,  and 
in  close  association  with  his  old  friends  and  "  com- 
mensales "  at  Balliol,  when  the  presentation  again 
fell  into  his  hands,  and  he  offered  it  to  Hugate. 

It  was  just  at  this  latter  date  that  Wyclif  exchanged 
his  rectory  of  Fillingham  for  that  of  Ludgarshall,  or 
Lutgurshall,  in  the  archdeaconry  of  Buckingham. 
If  there  was  any  question  of  private  arrangement  in 
all  this,  and  if  his  presentation  of  Hugate  to  Wycliffe- 
on-Tees  facilitated  his  transference  to  Ludgarshall, 
the  fact  would  be  entirely  and  conspicuously  to 
Wyclif's  credit,  since   Ludgarshall  was  a  poorer  liv- 


1369]  Wyclif' s  Early  Days.  97 

ing  than  Fillingham,  and  to  move  from  one  to  the 
other  involved  a  loss  of  income. 

Why,  it  may  be  asked,  should  Wyclif,  who  had 
elected  and  prepared  himself  for  the  life  of  a  secular 
clergyman,  twice  decline  to  undertake  the  charge 
of  a  parish  so  near  to  his  own  birthplace,  if  it  was  not 
actually  his  birthplace,  and  which  must  have  been  in 
some  respects  attractive  to  him  ?  A  simple  answer 
suggests  itself.  Wyclif  was  by  this  time,  if  not  a 
Southerner  in  sympathies,  at  least  bound  up  with  the 
life  and  interests  of  Oxford,  and  bent  on  pursuing 
his  ambitions  by  cultivating  his  friends  in  the 
political  world.  To  go  to  Wycliffe-on-Tees  as  its 
rector,  to  devote  his  life  and  his  means  to  rebuilding 
and  decorating  the  old  church,  and  to  spend  his 
days  with  the  rough  and  not  very  intellectual  men 
of  the  Yorkshire  borders,  must  have  appeared  to  him 
in  the  light  of  a  banishment,  not  to  say  a  deliberate 
desertion  of  the  path  of  duty  which  had  opened  up 
to  him  elsewhere.  He  wanted  to  live  in  the  South, 
within  easy  reach  of  Oxford  and  London  ;  and  so 
bent  was  he  on  being  close  to  his  work  that,  as  he 
had  preferred  a  Lincolnshire  living  to  a  residence  in 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  north-country  dales,  he 
subsequently  removed  to  a  poorer  parish  because  it 
lay  between  his  beloved  university  and  the  capital. 

There  was  another  reason  why  he  would  not  be 
keen  to  present  himself  to  Wycliffe-on-Tees.  The 
thing  would  smack  to  hts*  sensitive  mind  of  an  abuse 
which  he  particularly  hated,  and  against  which  he 
had  already  publicly  declared.  Appropriation  to 
individuals  of  the  trust-funds  of  the  Church,  in  any 


98  yohn  Wyclif.  [1320- 

shape  or  form,  was  in  Wyclif's  eyes  abominable  ; 
and,  however  the  presentation  to  this  living  had 
come  into  the  hands  of  his  family,  he  could  not 
regard  it  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  sacred  respon- 
sibility, which  would  in  no  wise  be  discharged  by 
nominating  himself.  In  the  English  tract,  Of  the 
Last  Age  of  the  Church — though  no  stress  is  here  laid 
for  the  purpose  of  argument  on  the  authorship  or 
date  of  this  tract — we  come  upon  this  fine  passage  : 
"  Both  vengeance  of  sword  and  mischiefs  unknown 
before,  by  which  men  in  these  days  have  had  to  be 
punished,  were  bound  to  happen  for  sin  of  priests. 
Men  shall  fall  on  them  and  cast  them  out  of  their 
fat  benefices,  and  they  shall  say, '  One  came  into  his 
benefice  by  his  kindred,  another  by  covenant  made 
before  ;  one  for  service  and  another  for  money  came 
into  God's  church.'  Then  shall  every  such  priest 
cry,  '  Alas,  alas !  that  no  good  spirit  dwelled  in  me 
at  my  coming  into  God's  church.' " 

Now  if  it  were  accepted  as  a  reasonable  supposi- 
tion that  Wyclif  was  from  1363  the  legal  head  of  his 
family,  and  patron  of  the  living  of  Wycliffe-on-Tees, 
there  would  be  no  further  need  to  press  the  point 
that  he  was  a  man  of  gentle  breeding  and  (at  least 
potentially)  of  some  private  means.  That  he  had 
character,  tact,  and  the  power  of  impressing  and 
influencing  his  fellow-men,  is  proved  by  his  high 
standing  at  Oxford,  his  popularity  as  a  lecturer,  and 
his  selection  to  be  master  of  a  college.  It  is  true 
that  there  were  amongst  his  contemporaries  "  di- 
vinely gifted  men "  of  humble  origin,  who  broke 
their  birth's  invidious  bar  and  rose  to  the  highest 


1369] 


Wyclif's  Early  Days, 


99 


positions  in  Church  and  State.  But  to  enjoy  the 
friendship  of  John  of  Gaunt,  and  the  favour  of  the 
King  and  the  Princess  of  Wales,  to  be  nominated  as 
king's  chaplain  and  royal  commissioner,  to  be  called 
on  by  Parliament  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  nation 
against  the  Pope,  to  keep  men  at  work  for  years  on 
the  translation  of  the  Bible,  and  tp  send  out  a  band 
of  missionaries  with  some  equipment,  however  poor 
— this  argues  that  Wyclif  had  money  at  his  com- 
mand, and  that  he  was  a  man  of  affairs  and  a  man 
of  address. 


ORIGINAL  SEAL  OF 
BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  1282. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


WYCLIF  AS   POLITICIAN. 


YCLIF  had  displayed  his  best 
qualities  at  Oxford,  where  he 
was  devotedly  loved.  He  was 
essentially  strong  in  all  the  rela- 
tions of  life,  save  in  the  un- 
fortunate particular  of  physical 
health.  If  there  be  one  note  in 
his  character  more  prominent 
than  the  rest,  it  is  that  of  spon- 
taneous and  effective  championship.  He  was  the 
champion  of  seculars  against  regulars,  of  the  Univer- 
sity against  Pope  and  hierarchy,  of  the  ignorant 
masses  against  obscurants,  of  the  nation  against 
the  Papacy,  of  the  new  truth  as  he  had  seen  it 
against  friars,  bishops,  and  papal  bulls.  Men  of  all 
classes,  from  peasant  to  Parliament  and  King,  looked 
to  him  at  one  time  or  another  for  strength,  inspira- 
tion, or  protection,  and   they  did   not  look  in  vain. 

IOO 


1366]  Wyclif  as  Politician,  101 

His  energy  never  failed  him,  and  his  confidence  was 
inexhaustible  and  inflexible. 

Even  before  he  threw  himself  into  politics — before 
he  became  chaplain  to  the  King  and  made  the 
acquaintance  of  John  of  Gaunt,  who  was  some 
twenty  years  his  junior — Wyclif  seems  to  have  been 
as  widely  known  as  a  man  could  be  in  those  days, 
with  no  higher  title  to  fame  than  that  he  was  a 
learned  Oxford  doctor,  a  bold  and  vigorous  preacher, 
and  an  upholder  of  the  poor.  He  was  fast  winning 
his  way  to  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  and  creat- 
ing that  deep  impression  on  the  men  of  his  day, 
friends  and  enemies  alike,  which  was  to  make  his 
mark  for  all  time. 

Of  Wyclif's  characteristic  opinions  on  matters  of 
Church  and  State,  there  will  be  more  to  be  said 
hereafter.  Meanwhile  his  ideas  had  been  moulded 
and  his  conclusions  were  being  shaped  by  a  series  of 
events  as  striking  as  any  which  have  occurred  within 
the  limits  of  our  history  as  a  nation. 

Still  fresh  and  vivid  in  the  fourteenth  century 
must  have  been  the  impression  stamped  upon  the 
minds  of  Englishmen  by  the  marvellous  developments 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  during  the  past  hundred 
years.  The  encroachments  of  the  Papacy  from  the 
time  when  Innocent  III.  had  laid  England  under 
tribute  would  seem  almost  as  recent  and  familiar  to 
Wyclif  in  his  teens  as  the  records  of  the  Crimean  War 
and  the  Indian  Mutiny  are  to  the  men  of  the  present 
generation.  When  he  began  to  take  an  interest  in 
contemporary  events,  the  successor  of  Innocent  and 
Boniface  was  not  at  Rome  but  at  Avignon,  figuring 


102  John  Wyclif,  [1366- 

as  it  were  in  the  triumph  of  the  French  king — a 
vassal  to  the  monarch  who  still  claimed  to  be  over- 
lord of  Norman  England.  Already  the  French  were 
our  hereditary  foes,  and  the  Vicars  of  Christ,  assum. 
ing  universal  dominion,  were  now  virtually  instru. 
ments  in  the  hand  of  the  enemy.  The  more  haughtily 
the  Plantagenets  asserted  their  independence,  the 
more  inadmissible  and  ridiculous  the  assumption  of 
the  Popes  would  appear  to  every  patriotic  English- 
man. King  John's  tribute  of  a  thousand  marks  had 
been  paid  for  the  last  time  to  Pope  John  XXII. 
After  1333 — at  any  rate  after  the  Pope's  death  in 
1334 — it  was  never  paid  again.  Benedict  claimed  it, 
but  it  was  refused,  and  even  the  payment  of  Peter's 
pence  was  discontinued  (at  any  rate  partially)  for  a 
time.  Benedict  was  honest,  virtuous,  and  weak. 
Clement  VI.  (1342-1352)  was  the  exact  opposite  of 
his  predecessor,  the  precise  negation  of  Christian 
virtues  ;  and  his  conduct  in  holding  the  jubilee  of 
1350  for  the  sake  of  its  golden  harvest,  whilst  all 
Europe  was  writhing  under  the  plague,  was  surely 
the  head  and  front  of  his  offending.  No  fervent 
Christian,  no  Englishman  who  loved  his  country, 
could  do  otherwise  at  this  time  than  hold  the 
political  and  even  the  spiritual  claims  of  the  Popes 
at  Avignon  in  contempt  and  disregard. 

If  the  papal  jubilee  of  1350  doubled  the  horrors  of 
the  plague  in  the  eyes  of  all  right-judging  persons, 
the  effect  which  had  already  been  produced  by  that 
fatal  epidemic  is  almost  inconceivable.  It  over- 
shadowed the  life,  and  must  in  some  measure  have 
affected    the    character,    of    every  one    who    lived 


1375]  Wyclif  as  Politician.  103 

through  it.  At  the  universities  in  particular  it  would 
long  continue  to  be  a  memorable  landmark,  if  only 
for  its  effect  in  largely  diminishing  the  number  of 
students.  A  man  of  Wyclif 's  devout  and  sympathetic 
disposition  could  not  fail  to  be  deeply  moved  by 
what  he  had  seen  and  heard  of  the  pestilence,  and  of 
the  ecstasies  of  repentance,  self-torture,  and  reaction 
which  followed  closely  in  its  train. 

From  the  capture  of  Calais  to  the  treaty  of  Bre- 
tigny  (1 347-1 360),  Wyclif  would  be  penetrated,  in 
common  with  his  countrymen,  by  the  military 
achievements  of  Edward  III.  and  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
by  the  collapse  of  the  French  armies,  and  by  the 
annexation  of  some  of  the  fairest  provinces  of  France. 
He  probably  saw  the  captive  kings  in  London  ;  and 
he  must  have  heard  of  the  rich  spoils  carried  home 
by  the  soldiers,  or  sent  by  settlers  to  their  friends 
in  England,  where,  according  to  enthusiastic  con- 
temporaries, there  was  scarcely  a  house  which  did 
contain  some  ornament  or  other  valuable  brought 
over  from  the  conquered  country.  He  may  have 
seen  and  conversed  with  the  famous  son  of  a 
Gloucestershire  outlaw,  Richard  Whittington,  who, 
after  his  own  death,  presided  three  times  over  the 
merchant  princes  of  the  metropolis.  He  would  not 
be  ignorant  of  the  vast  accumulation  of  land  and 
wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  comparatively  small 
section  of  the  nation.  And  side  by  side  with 
this  wealth  he  saw — we  know  from  his  writings 
that  he  saw — the  misery  of  the  serfs,  the  poverty 
and  starvation  of  the  labourers,  the  grinding  taxa- 
tion   of  the   industrious   classes,    and    the   growing 


104  John  Wyclif.  [1366- 

discontent  of  the  common  people  with  their  condi- 
tion and  prospects. 

Facts  like  these  are  wont  to  temper  the  metal  of 
the  strongest  minds,  to  urge  on  the  best  men  to 
higher  aims,  and  to  touch  their  spirits  to  finer  issues. 
If  the  fourteenth  century  was  critical  and  luminous 
beyond  comparison  with  those  on  either  side  of  it, 
was  it  not  in  some  measure  because  the  men  of  that 
day  had  been  thus  keenly  tempered  and  finely 
touched  ? 

It  is  only  in  a  particular  and  limited  sense  that 
Wyclif  can  be  properly  spoken  of  as  a  politician. 
Certainly  he  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  politics  of 
his  time,  looking  to  them  for  results  which,  in  his 
opinion,  would  be  highly  advantageous  to  the  cause 
of  true  religion.  He  may  or  may  not  have  been  an 
active  intriguer  with  John  of  Gaunt,  and  with  John's 
intended  brother-in-law,  the  Earl  of  Pembroke.  The 
probability  is  that  the  Duke  had  a  young  man's 
enthusiasm  for  the  famous  Oxford  preacher,  who 
might  well  have  been  his  tutor  (as  Burley  of  Merton 
was  tutor  to  the  Prince  of  Wales),  and  that  he  asked 
his  advice  on  sundry  questions  touching  the  rights 
and  status  of  the  clergy.  They  must  have  had  many 
feelings  in  common,  so  far  as  the  relations  of  State 
and  Church  were  concerned,  and  Wyclif  could  not 
but  admire  the  spirit  and  pluck  of  the  Duke,  so  long 
as  they  were  honestly  directed  to  humble  the  pride 
of  haughty  ecclesiastics. 

We  do  not  know  at  what  precise  date  John  Wyclif 
was  appointed  one  of  the  king's  chaplains.  He 
speaks  of  himself  in  1366  as  " peculiaris  regis  clericus 


1375]  Wyclif  as  Politician,  105 

talis  qualis."  The  last  two  words  might  almost 
imply  that  he  was  an  occasional  preacher  before  the 
Court  by  invitation  rather  than  by  formal  appoint- 
ment, though  they  would  equally  well  indicate  a 
modest  self-depreciation,  quite  in  keeping  with  his 
ordinary  style.  If  we  did  not  know  that  Wyclif 
actually  discharged  some  of  the  functions  of  a  royal 
chaplain,  in  his  character  as  a  secular  priest,  we  might 
be  content  to  take  the  regis  clericus  in  what  would 
perhaps  be  its  most  natural  signification — that  of  a 
cleric  learned  in  the  canon  and  civil  law,  and  con- 
sulted by  the  Crown  as  a  lawyer  rather  than  as  a 
clergyman.  Wyclifs  reports  to  Parliament,  however, 
carefully  avoid  any  claim  to  speak  with  authority  on 
legal  points.  It  seems  most  natural  to  conclude  that 
he  had  a  regular  appointment  as  chaplain,  and  that 
he  spent  some  of  his  time  every  year  in  the  train  of 
the  monarch,  and  in  association  with  members  of  his 
Court.  Perhaps  it  was  in  this  way  that  he  first  made 
the  acquaintance  of  John  of  Gaunt ;  but  on  the  other 
hand  his  good  connections  in  the  North  may  have 
procured  for  him  an  introduction  to  the  King's  son, 
who  had  married  Blanche  of  Lancaster  in  1360.  In 
any  case  Wyclif  was  soon  in  high  favour  ;  and  he  ex- 
ercised an  influence,  amongst  others,  on  the  unhappy 
and  doubtless  scandalous  Alice  Perrers,  who  seems  to 
have  been  an  able  manager  of  men,  and  who  was 
certainly  susceptible  to  the  charms  of  his  fiery  and 
pungent  eloquence. 

However  this  may  have  been,  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that,  when  Wyclif  came  into  touch  with  the  political 
forces  of  the  time,  he  would  aim  at  the  promotion  of 


106  John  Wyclif.  U366- 

ecclesiastical  reforms  through  the  secular  authorities, 
just  as  these  authorities  must  have  expected  to  gain 
through  him  the  alliance  of  a  revolutionary  party 
within  the  Church. 

The  bolder  spirits  of  the  fourteenth  century  who 
entered  more  or  less  consciously  and  deliberately 
into  this  combination,  directed  as  it  was  towards  the 
attainment  of  civil  and  religious  reform,  were  not 
altogether  without  warrant  if  they  began  by  nursing 
sanguine  hopes  of  success.  It  was  not  for  them  to 
foresee  that  the  destiny  of  England  required  her  still 
to  pick  her  dreary  way  through  a  chaos  of  mental 
darkness  and  desperate  civil  war.  They  could  only 
realise  their  own  regeneration,  and  anticipate  the 
harvest  of  their  own  toil.  The  bright  visions  excited 
in  ardent  and  enthusiastic  minds  in  the  age  of  the 
Plantagenets,  by  the  lives  of  such  men  as  Wyclif 
and  Chaucer,  by  the  growing  vigour  of  Parliament, 
by  the  championship  of  Lancaster  at  his  best,  by  the 
rich  endowment  and  achievement  of  the  universities, 
were  not  on  the  face  of  them  more  chimerical,  more 
foredoomed  to  disappointment,  than  those  which 
flashed  before  the  minds  of  Englishmen  in  the  days 
of  the  Tudors,  as  they  witnessed  the  work  of  Cran- 
mer,  of  Thomas  Cromwell,  of  the  Council  of  Edward 
VI.,  of  John  Milton,  of  the  schoolmasters  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  If  the  disappointment  of  the  earlier 
hope  was  predestined  and  inevitable,  as  the  shapeless 
blossom  is  enfolded  in  the  cankered  bud,  neither 
Wyclif  nor  John  of  Gaunt,  nor  any  of  the  optimists 
of  their  generation,  could  have  foreseen  the  abortive 
failure.    How  often  in  the  history  of  our  country  have 


1375]  Wyclif  as  Politician.  107 

the  first  hopes  of  eager  and  earnest  reformers  been 
doomed  to  extinction — and  how  often  in  the  long 
run  has  the  original  failure  been  the  groundwork  of 
eventual  success  ! 

No  section  of  Wyclifs  public  life  stands  in  greater 
need  of  elucidation  than  the  eight  years  from  1366 
to  1374.  One  would  gladly  know  the  terms  of  the 
intimacy,  the  nature  of  the  understanding,  between 
him  and  the  young  Duke  of  Lancaster.  Where,  in 
what  circumstances,  and  how  often  did  they  meet  ? 
In  what  vein  did  they  discuss  the  tendencies  of  the 
time  and  the  chances  of  an  effective  Reformation  ? 
How  far  did  their  mutual  obligations  lead  them  in  a 
common  course  of  action  ?  The  historical  romancer 
might  paint  for  us  their  interviews  and  report  their 
conversation.  By  some  happy  instinct  he  might  hit 
upon  their  several  motives  and  policies,  and  show 
us  the  grave,  acute,  strong-minded,  and  feeble-bodied 
priest,  advising  and  restraining  the  impatient  prince, 
who  at  this  time  would  have  been  little  more 
than  half  his  age,  and  whose  headstrong  vehemence 
must  now  and  again  have  filled  the  more  prudent 
Reformer  (himself  no  mincer  of  speech)  with  uneasy 
qualms.  But  imagination  will  not  fill  the  gap  which 
is  left  by  facts.  In  the  absence  of  such  personal 
details  as  we  could  only  learn  from  an  autobiogra- 
phy, or  from  the  narrative  of  a  friendly  contem- 
porary, or  from  letters  written  at  the  time, — and  no 
one  can  say  that  we  have  yet  put  our  hands  upon 
all  the  important  manuscripts  bearing  on  this 
age — we  must  be  content  to  take  the  measure  of 
the  conditions   by  which  Wyclif   was    surrounded, 


io8  John  Wyclif. 


[1366- 


and  of  the  events  in  which  we  know  that  he  bore 
his  part. 

At  the  time  when  he  was  brought  into  contact 
with  the  English  Parliament,  that  body  had  but  re- 
cently become  effective  for  other  purposes  than  the 
granting  of  supplies,  and  the  presenting  of  petitions 
which  might  or  might  not  form  the  basis  of  ordi- 
nances. The  inferior  ranks  of  the  Church  digni- 
taries had  ceased  to  attend,  the  clergy  sitting  apart 
in  a  Convocation  of  their  own.  The  prelates  still  sat 
with  the  barons — twenty-seven  abbots  and  two  priors 
in  addition  to  the  bishops  ;  whilst  the  knights  of  the 
shires  sat  with  the  burgesses  from  the  towns.  The 
Lords  and  Commons  thus  constituted  had  begun  to 
pass  their  statutes,  and  forward  them  to  the  monarch 
for  his  assent.  Not  only  had  Parliament  deposed  a 
king  in  1327,  but  it  had  repeatedly  checked  the  arbi- 
trary levy  of  taxes  by  Edward  III.  The  Commons 
had  expressly  claimed  freedom  of  speech,  the  finality 
of  elections  by  constituencies,  the  immunity  of  their 
Speaker,  and  the  right  to  audit  public  accounts.  It 
was  already  the  established  rule  that  the  two 
Houses  should  meet  every  year  ;  and  the  failure  to 
issue  writs  for  upwards  of  a  year,  towards  the  close 
of  Edward's  reign,  was  deeply  resented.*  Parliament 
was  thus  a  very  powerful  and  serviceable  body,  even 


*  Too  much  of  Parliament  may  be  at  least  as  objectionable  as  too 
little  of  it.  In  January,  1379,  after  the  Commons  had  with  difficulty 
been  prevailed  upon  to  grant  large  supplies,  they  petitioned  the 
Crown  that  they  might  not  be  called  together  again  within  the  year. 
This  is  quite  consistent  with  their  resentment,  four  years  earlier, 
when  the  twelve  months  were  exceeded. 


13751  Wyclif  as  Politician.  109 

in  presence  of  a  monarch  as  wilful  and  haughty  as 
Edward  III.  Wyclif  might  well  have  expected  that 
such  an  instrument — a  "  two-handed  engine  "  which 
already  in  those  days  involved  the  power  and  strength 
of  the  nation — would  be  able  to  effect  the  great  ob- 
ject which  he  had  been  courageous  enough  to  desire. 
There  are  sundry  passages  in  his  writings  which  show 
that  he  took  a  strong  interest  in  parliamentary 
debates  affecting  either  the  National  Church  or  the 
Church  of  Rome.  It  may  be  that  his  chaplaincy 
imposed  upon  him  certain  clerical  duties  in  connec- 
tion with  the  meeting  of  the  Houses,  which  rendered 
his  presence  necessary.  At  all  events  he  refers  more 
than  once  to  discussions  which  he  had  heard  amongst 
the  Lords  at  Westminster.  He  had  opportunities 
for  preaching,  and  we  know  that  he  made  a  strong 
impression  by  his  sermons  in  London.  Perhaps  the 
first  of  these  opportunities  was  when  he  had  to  preach 
to  King  and  Parliament  at  the  opening  of  the  session 
of  1366. 

So  far  as  the  attitude  of  the  State  towards  the 
papal  authority  was  concerned,  there  was  at  this 
time  very  little  difference  of  opinion  amongst 
Englishmen.  Apart  from  the  Italians  whom  Rome 
had  thrust  into  English  benefices,  and  from  Italianised 
members  of  the  regular  and  secular  clergy,  all  were 
against  the  papal  assumptions.  Wyclifs  firmest 
opponent  in  the  ranks  of  the  hierarchy,  William 
Courtenay,  who  rose  to  be  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
was  in  this  sense  anti-papal.  The  clergy  of  England 
had  had  long  and  grievous  struggles  with  a  succes- 
sion of  monarchs  in   defence   of   their  possessions, 


no  John  Wyclif.  [1366- 

against  what  they  doubtless  considered  unjust  and 
exorbitant  taxation  :  but  they  showed  more  than 
once  that  they  preferred  the  exactions  of  the  King 
to  the  exactions  of  Rome.  And,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  Church  and  the  various  Orders  in  England 
had  grown  so  enormously  rich  that  if  they  had  not 
paid  heavy  ransoms  throughout  the  century,  and 
borne  a  very  considerable  share  of  the  cost  of  the 
wars,  they  could  not  have  escaped  with  their  title- 
deeds.  Their  possessions  were  so  largely  increased 
after  sundry  visitations  of  the  Black  Death,  which 
shook  the  tree  of  superstition  until  their  garners 
were  full  of  its  fruit,  that  the  taxable  area  outside 
the  Church  was  sensibly  and  even  seriously  dimin- 
ished. Henceforth,  if  not  before,  it  was  one  of  the 
political  axioms  of  intelligent  English  laymen  that 
the  State  could  never  thrive  again  until  the  Church 
had  been  made  to  restore  the  immense  superfluity 
of  wealth  which  pious  Christians  had  bestowed 
upon  her.  And  the  truth  is  that  it  never  did  thrive 
until  the  earlier  Tudors  had  redressed  the  balance, 
at  any  rate  so  far  as  the  Orders  had  disturbed  it. 

John  of  Gaunt  seems  to  have  entered  political 
life  with  the  special  object  of  enforcing  this  restor- 
ation of  property  by  the  Church,  and  for  a  time 
it  looked  as  though  nothing  could  save  the  clergy 
from  the  zeal  of  the  Duke  and  the  barons.  "  Never," 
says  Mr.  Green,  "had  the  spiritual  or  moral  hold  of 
the  Church  on  the  nation  been  less  ;  never  had  her 
wealth  been  greater.  Out  of  a  population  of  little 
more  than  two  millions  the  ecclesiastics  numbered 
between    twenty  and    thirty   thousand,    owning  in 


1375]  Wyclif  as  Politician.  1 1 1 

landed  property  alone  more  than  a  third  of  the  soil ; 
their  '  spiritualities  '  in  dues  and  offerings  amounting 
to  twice  the  royal  revenue."  Such  a  condition  of 
things  must  indeed  be  a  peril  to  any  nation ;  and  no 
one  could  call  himself  a  statesman  in  those  days 
without  recognising  the  evil  and  seeking  a  remedy 
for  it.  That  is  a  justification  for  much  of  the  Duke's 
subsequent  conduct,  as  well  as  for  Wyclif's  partici- 
pation in  politics. 

It  was  in  1366,  as  already  stated,  that  the  Rector  of 
Fillingham  was  invited  by  Parliament  to  show  cause 
against  the  further  payment  of  tribute  to  Rome.  The 
matter  called  for  argument  rather  than  authority ;  the 
tribute  was  already  largely  in  arrear,  for  Englishmen 
could  no  longer  brook  the  humiliation  bequeathed 
to  them  by  one  of  the  most  worthless  of  their  kings. 
Nothing  had  been  paid  since  1333,  and  the  con- 
querors of  Crecy  and  Poitiers  were  not  minded  to 
renew  the  payment  of  an  annual  subsidy  which 
stamped  them  as  vassals  to  the  vassal  of  France. 
The  Pope  had  pressed  for  his  dues,  which  Parlia- 
ment declined  to  pay.  The  former  had  found  his 
champion  in  the  person  of  a  monk  who  had  appar- 
ently addressed  a  remonstrance  to  Parliament ;  and 
Wyclif  was  called  upon  to  reply  to  this  document. 

He  did  so  in  a  Latin  tract  or  "  determination  " 
on  Lordship*  which  maintained — with  the  same  dis- 
tinction between  temporal  and  spiritual  things  which 
had  often  been  urged  in  the  discussions  on  ecclesi- 
astical poverty — that  the  State  was  always  entitled 


*  Determinatio  qucedam  de  Dominio, 


U2  John  Wyclif.  11366- 

to  refuse  tribute  to  the  Roman  Pontiff,  to  try 
ecclesiastics  in  its  own  courts,  and  to  take  away,  for 
fit  and  proper  cause,  the  possessions  of  ecclesiastics. 

"  My  Doctor,"  says  Wyclif, — "  my  Doctor  with  his 
brethren  demands,  with  a  certain  excess  of  vehement 
insistence,  with  effervescence  and  swelling  of  the 
spirit,  that  I  should  reply  to  him  categorically  in  the 
terms  of  his  argument,  and  more  particularly  as 
regards  the  case  which  he  makes  for  the  Pope  against 
the  authority  of  the  King.  Every  lordship,  says  he, 
given  under  a  condition,  exists  only  so  long  as  that 
condition  has  not  been  destroyed.  Now  the  Pope 
gave  the  realm  of  England  to  our  King  on  condition 
that  England  would  pay  seven  hundred  marks  each 
year  [and  Ireland  three  hundred].  But  this  condi- 
tion has  been  abolished  by  lapse  of  time  and  cir- 
cumstances :  wherefore  the  King  of  England  has  lost 
the  true  lordship  of  England." 

It  is  curious,  Wyclif  goes  on  to  say,  that  the  case 
should  be  put  to  me  in  this  pointed  way ;  and  my 
friends  tell  me  that  it  has  been  done  for  three 
reasons — first,  that,  as  soon  as  I  have  answered,  I 
may  be  denounced  to  the  Roman  Curia,  censured, 
and  deprived  of  my  position  ;  secondly,  that  the 
favour  of  Rome  may  be  secured  for  himself  and  his 
friends ;  thirdly,  that  secular  lordships  may  be 
heaped  upon  the  abbeys,  by  the  extension  of  the 
papal  authority  in  England,  without  the  wholesome 
restraint  of  brotherly  expostulation.  "  But  I,  as  a 
humble  and  obedient  son  of  the  Roman  Church, 
protest  that  I  do  not  mean  to  make  any  contention 
which  would   so  much  as  sound  like  an  insult,  or 


1375]  Wyclif  as  Politician.  113 

give  reasonable  cause  of  offence  to  pious  ears. 
Wherefore  in  the  first  instance  I  would  invite  my 
reverend  friend  the  Doctor  to  deal  with  the  following 
argument,  which  was  held,  as  I  have  been  told,  by  a 
number  of  secular  lords  in  a  certain  Council."  Then 
he  proceeds  to  unfold  his  case  against  the  tribute, 
manifestly  devising  this  pious  fraud  in  order  to 
deprive  his  opponent  of  the  opportunity  of  triumph- 
ing over  him  as  a  rebellious  priest.  The  seven  lords 
are  seven  arguments;  and  they  are  substantially  of 
this  kind: 

1.  England  was  won  with  the  sword  and  defended 
with  the  sword.  No  tribute  can  go  on  for  ever  with- 
out an  appeal  to  the  sword. 

2.  Tribute  should  only  be  paid  to  those  who  are 
fit  to  receive  it.  The  Pope  ought  to  be  poor,  like 
Christ,  and  to  leave  tribute  to  Caesars. 

3.  As  the  Pope  is  "  servant  of  the  servants  of 
God,"  he  can  only  take  his  dues  in  return  for  service 
rendered.  But  he  renders  no  service  to  England; 
and,  services  being  denied,  the  tribute  also  may  be 
properly  refused. 

4.  An  overlord  cannot  be  expected  to  pay  tribute, 
and  the  King  of  England  is  overlord  in  England. 
If  the  Pope  were  overlord  of  the  ecclesiastical  prop- 
erty, he  would  be  paramount  over  one-third  of  Eng- 
land, which  cannot  be  allowed.  But  if  he  holds  of 
the  King,  it  is  he  who  ought  to  be  paying  tribute. 

5.  Pope  Innocent  made  King  John  pay  for  his 
absolution  and  for  other  spiritual  ministration — 
which  was  flat  simony ;  and  every  one  is  entitled  to 
repudiate  an  immoral  contract. 


H4  John  Wyclif.  [1366- 

6.  If  the  Pope  really  gave  England  to  John,  as  a 
lord  gives  to  his  vassal,  he  gave  it  for  a  ridiculously 
small  fee ;  and  on  the  same  principle  he  might 
squander  the  rest  of  Christendom  in  the  same  way. 
We  ought  to  make  a  stand  at  once.  And  as  the 
theologians  say  that  a  man  who  is  in  mortal  sin  for- 
feits  his  dominion,  and  the  Pope  is  liable  to  sin,  one 
mortal  overlord  is  quite  enough  for  us,  and  we  had 
better  give  our  goods  to  the  poor  instead  of  to  the 
Pope,  and  hold  of  Christ  alone. 

7.  My  colleagues  are  forgetting  the  unwisdom  of 
the  King  and  the  supreme  right  of  the  nation,  with- 
out whose  consent  no  lasting  contract  can  be  made 
to  its  damage. 

"  Now,"  says  Wyclif,  after  reciting  arguments  of 
this  kind,  and  so  neatly  turning  the  tables  on  the 
monk  who  had  desired  to  entrap  him,  "  unless  the 
Doctor  can  support  the  rational  character  of  his  argu- 
ment against  these  contentions  of  the  English  lords, 
it  has  no  force  against  the  position  of  our  lord  the 
King." 

For  those  days  the  rejoinder  was  quite  sufficient, 
and  was  held  to  have  served  its  turn.  The  claim  for 
tribute  was  dropped  again,  and  Wyclif,  by  the 
cogency  of  his  reasoning,  earned  both  credit  amongst 
his  friends  and  odium  at  Rome.  Unwelcome  as  such 
reasoning  would  naturally  be  to  the  Papacy,  and  to 
its  warmest  friends  in  England,  there  was  so  far 
no  attempt  to  fix  any  charge  of  heresy  on  Wyclif. 
Nevertheless  it  was  about  this  time  that  John  Kyn- 
yngham,  a  Carmelite  Friar,  began  to  wage  a  perti- 
nacious fight  with  him,  challenging  him  on  the  score 


1375]  Wyclif  as  Politician.  115 

of  certain  opinions  in  his  academic  treatise,  De  Esse 
Intelligibili  Creaturce*  Kynyngham  was  somewhat 
impar  congressus ;  he  seems  to  have  been  mild  of 
mood  and  speech,  gentle  and  self-depreciatory ;  but 
that  he  should  have  attacked  the  strongest  of  his 
contemporaries,  and  stuck  to  the  attack  for  nearly 
twenty  years,  showed  at  any  rate  that  he  found  con- 
troversy a  congenial  pursuit. 

It  was  a  great  crisis  in  the  life  of  Wyclif.  A  high 
compliment  had  been  paid  him,  not  merely  in  mak- 
ing him  a  king's  chaplain,  but  also  in  looking  to  him 
to  plead  the  cause  of  the  nation  against  the  Pope. 
Already  it  was  clear  he  had  attracted  the  notice  of 
all  who  were  tired  of  the  dominion  of  Rome,  and 
was  recognised  as  peculiarly  well  equipped  for  this 
act  of  championship.  His  friend,  the  King's  son, 
was  at  the  head  of  a  strong  party  of  complaisant 
earls  and  barons.  The  King  was  weak  and  pliable 
in  the  hands  of  the  young  Duke,  and,  though  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  by  no  means  of  one  mind  with 
his  intriguing  brother,  he  would  scarcely  be  a  fatal 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  an  equitable  reform  of  the 
Church.  The  popular  hostility  to  Rome,  coupled 
as  it  was  with  an  intense  dislike  of  the  foreign  work- 
men in  London  and  the  manufacturing  centres,  was 
sufficiently  strong  to  encourage  the  hope  that  the 
fourteenth  century  might  see  the  last  of  the  Rome- 
scot,  and  of  papal  intervention  in  England.  But  it 
may  be  questioned  whether  the  Reformers  did  not 
unwittingly  exaggerate  the  strength  or  the  extent  of 


*  On  the  Conceptional  Existence  of  God's  Creation. 


n6  John  Wyclif.  [1366- 

the  feeling  against  the  excessive  endowments  of  the 
Church. 

Lancaster  and  his  friends  came  to  open  issue  with 
the  Church  party  almost  as  soon  as  the  Duke  began 
to  take  an  interest  in  public  affairs.  William  of 
Wykeham,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  a  prince  of 
pluralists,  was  President  of  the  King's  Council  in 
1370,  and  he  was  regarded  with  not  a  little  jealousy 
in  various  quarters.  He  was  very  naturally  obnox- 
ious to  the  anti-clericals  in  the  two  Houses,  who  did 
not  see  why  the  clergy,  having  their  own  Convoca- 
tion, and  a  potent  voice  amongst  the  Lords,  should 
also  hold  the  presidency  of  the  Council  and  the 
principal  posts  under  the  Crown.  The  discontent  on 
this  ground  came  to  a  head  in  the  year  just  named, 
when  Parliament  sent  a  petition  to  the  King  request- 
ing "  that  it  will  please  our  said  lord  the  King  that 
the  laymen  of  the  said  kingdom  who  are  sufficient 
and  able  of  estate  may  be  chosen  for  this  (the  task 
of  government),  and  that  no  other  person  be  here- 
after made  Chancellor,  Treasurer,  Clerk  of  the  Privy 
Seal,  Baron  of  the  Exchequer,  Chamberlain  of  the 
Exchequer,  Controller,  and  all  other  great  officers 
and  governors  of  the  said  kingdom." 

This  demand  was  followed  at  once  by  the  removal 
of  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Exeter  from  the 
Council,  and  by  the  appointment  in  their  place  of 
Robert  Thorpe  as  Chancellor  and  Richard  le  Scrope 
as  Treasurer.  The  Duke  for  a  few  years  to  come  had 
the  reins  of  power  in  his  hands,  and  it  seemed  as  if 
the  opportunity  had  arrived  for  striking  his  decisive 
blow. 


WILLIAM  OF  WYKEHAM,  BISHOP  OF  WINCHESTER. 

FROM   A   PORTRAIT   BY  J.    FABER   IN   THE   HALL  OF   NEW    COLLEGE,  OXFORD. 


1375]  Wyclif  as  Politician.  1 1 7 

At  the  outset,  Parliament  was  strongly  and  unmis- 
takably on  his  side.  Until  misfortunes  abroad  and 
corruption  at  home  brought  discredit  upon  Lancaster 
and  his  colleagues,  we  hear  little  of  opposition  in  the 
Commons.  It  was  not  likely  that  the  knights  and 
burgesses  would  protest  against  the  heavy  burdens 
laid  upon  the  Church,  though  they  were  very  stiff 
when  it  came  to  a  question  of  taxing  wool  and  mov- 
ables. Doubtless  there  would  be  vigorous  remon- 
strances in  the  representative  chamber  when  the 
King  claimed  increasing  dues  on  the  raw  material  of 
Norwich  fustians,  Sudbury  baize,  Kentish  broad- 
cloths, Colchester  sayes  and  serges,  Kendal  cloth, 
Devonshire  kerseys,  Welsh  friezes,  Taunton  serges, 
and  the  various  cloths  produced  in  Gloucestershire 
and  Worcestershire,  in  Sussex,  Berkshire,  and  Hamp- 
shire. But,  when  the  demand  was  addressed  to  the 
rulers  of  the  Church,  every  other  interest  in  the 
kingdom  endorsed  it  without  hesitation. 

In  the  House  of  Lords  the  clergy  had  no  lack  of 
spokesmen,  who  protested  bitterly  against  the  King's 
demands.  The  levy  of  1371  must  have  appeared  to  the 
majority  of  Englishmen  as  evidence  of  a  new  depart- 
ure against  the  national  Church,  if  not  as  a  first  step 
towards  wholesale  confiscation.  A  special  tax  was 
laid  upon  all  lands  which  had  come  into  mortmain 
since  1292  ;  in  addition  to  which  the  tenth  already 
paid  by  the  Church,  from  which  the  less  wealthy 
benefices  had  hitherto  been  exempt,  was  now  made 
of  universal  application. 

These  taxes  would  produce  a  large  revenue ;  and 
though  the  wars  sucked  up  money  like  a  quicksand, 


n8  John  Wyclif.  [1366- 

and  the  corrupt  Court  was  a  sponge  that  never 
ceased  to  absorb  public  funds — over  and  above  the 
loans  which  Edward  continued  to  contract  with  the 
Florentine  money-lenders — yet  the  Commons  were 
doubtless  relieved  by  such  solid  contributions  from 
the  Church.  It  was  vain  for  the  clergy  to  resist,  so 
long  as  they  had  the  nation  united  against  them. 

A  Benedictine  monk  preached  a  sermon  before  the 
University  of  Oxford,  protesting  against  the  harshness 
of  these  demands,  and  repeating  arguments  for 
exemption  which  few  would  have  gainsaid  if  the 
acquisitiveness  of  the  Church  had  never  passed  the 
bounds  of  moderation.  Wyclif  took  occasion  to 
reply  to  this  sermon  ;  and  in  doing  so  he  gives  us 
what  is  probably  (as  Dr.  Shirley  says)  the  first  pub- 
lished report  of  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House 
of  Lords. 

"  I  heard,"  he  says,*  "  certain  religious  posses- 
sionem in  a  Parliament  in  London  make  the  same 
demand  (of  exemption),  and  one  of  the  lords  an- 
swered by  means  of  a  fable.  '  Once  on  a  time/  said 
he,  '  the  birds  were  gathered  together,  and  amongst 
them  was  the  owl,  bare  of  plumage.  Making  him- 
self out  to  be  half  dead  and  frozen,  he  shiveringly 
begged  feathers  from  the  other  birds.  And  they, 
moved  to  pity,  gave  him  feathers  all  round,  until  he 
had  been  decked  in  some  ugly  guise  with  the  plumes 
of  his  fellow  bipeds.' "  Then  a  hawk  suddenly 
appeared  in  the  distance,  and  threw  this  assembly  of 
fowls  into  a  panic,  and  they  all  demanded  their 
feathers  again.    "  '  And  when  he  refused  them,  every 

*  De  Dominio  Civili,  ii.,  ch.  I. 


A  BENEDICTINE  MONK. 


1375]  Wyclif  as  Politician.  119 

bird  took  back  his  own  feather  by  force ;  and  so  they 
escaped  the  danger,  whilst  the  owl  was  more  wretch- 
edly callow  than  before.  So,'  said  he,  '  if  war  breaks 
out  against  us,  we  ought  to  take  the  temporalities 
from  the  possessionem,  as  being  the  common 
property  of  the  realm,  and  prudently  to  defend  our 
country  with  what  is  our  own  wealth,  though  in  a 
measure  superfluous.'  " 

But  if  the  clergy  had  to  listen  occasionally  to  pun- 
gent apologues  of  this  kind,  they  managed  to  return 
rubber  for  rubber.  With  part  of  the  spoils  of  the 
Church  a  great  fleet  was  fitted  out  and  placed  under 
the  command  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke.  "  Plenty  of 
money  "  was  sent  with  it,  to  engage  an  army  of  mer- 
cenaries in  Poitou  ;  but  the  Spaniards  fell  upon  this 
expedition  off  Rochelle,  and  annihilated  it.  Evi- 
dently, said  the  clergy,  there  was  a  curse  on  the 
plundered  money ;  and  when  the  King  with  four  of 
his  sons  attempted  to  take  out  another  fleet,  to 
restore  their  broken  fortunes,  and  could  not  get  a 
favourable  wind  until  it  was  too  late,  the  superstitious 
friends  of  the  Church  agreed  that  "  God  was  on  the 
side  of  the  French." 

The  fact  is  that  the  country  entered  on  a  series 
of  disasters  at  the  moment  when  Wyclif  and  his 
friends  must  have  been  nursing  their  highest  hopes. 
The  illness  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  forced  him 
to  return  to  England  after  the  cruel  massacre  at 
Limoges.  The  tide  of  war  was  already  turning,  and 
under  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  the  English  arms 
suffered  various  humiliating  defeats.  Portsmouth  had 
been  burned  by  the  French  in  1 369,  and  three  years 


120  John  Wyclif.  [1366- 

later  came  the  terrible  disgrace  at  Rochelle.  The 
conquests  made  at  Crecy  and  Poitiers  were  lost 
piecemeal,  and  a  splendid  English  army  led  by 
Lancaster,  whilst  attempting  to  cross  France  from 
Calais  to  Bordeaux,  was  half  destroyed  by  cold  and 
famine.  The  Commons  presented  a  petition  to  the 
monarch  complaining  that  though,  twenty  years 
before,  he  had  been  called  "  the  king  of  the  sea," 
the  English  navy  was  now  ruined  by  incapacity  and 
mismanagement.  Grievous  taxation,  direct  and 
indirect,  had  been  levied  for  the  prosecution  of  the 
war,  and  it  was  shrewdly  suspected  that  considerable 
sums  had  remained  in  the  hands  of  officials.  Corn 
was  at  famine  prices.  The  whole  country  was  dis- 
contented and  enraged  ;  the  King's  advisers  became 
thoroughly  unpopular,  and  the  Government  was 
brought  into  contempt. 

John  of  Gaunt,  it  must  be  admitted,  had  been 
tried  and  found  wanting;  for  though  some  of  the 
mischances  which  fell  upon  him  were  independent 
of  his  control,  he  was  certainly  not  without  respon- 
sibility for  the  worst  of  them.  Beginning  with  a 
strong  policy,  full  of  ambition  and  fire  and  intrigue, 
he  was  apparently  one  of  those  men  who  are  born  to 
make  a  noise  in  the  world  disproportionate  to  their 
effective  power.  Whether  through  fault  or  through 
misfortune,  he  failed  as  a  general,  as  an  administrator, 
and  as  a  manager  of  men.  Having  assumed  the 
title  of  King  of  Castile,  he  brought  on  his  country 
the  most  humiliating  revenges  from  the  Spanish  fleet. 
Having  taken  over  the  command  in  France  from 
his  more  warlike  brother,  he  lost  thousands  of  men 


1375]  Wyclif  as  Politician.  1 2 1 

and  millions  of  money,  and  ended  by  pressing  the 
French  King  for  a  truce.  After  defying  and  chal- 
lenging the  Papacy  for  many  years,  he  found  himself 
compelled,  as  the  head  of  the  English  Government, 
to  acquiesce  in  the  virtual  abandonment  of  his 
claims.  Naturally  a  violent  and  overbearing  man, 
who  when  he  wanted  to  argue  could  only  browbeat, 
and  who  is  described  by  a  contemporary  as  one 
"  whose  doings  were  ever  contrary,"  he  descended 
so  far  as  to  truckle  and  pay  court  to  his  father's 
mistress.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  he  was  accused  of 
profiting  by  the  embezzlement  of  shameless  rogues 
in  the  royal  household,  and,  when  the  Commons 
showed  a  disposition  to  inquire  into  the  financial 
abuses,  he  withheld  the  parliamentary  writs  during 
the  years  1374  and  1375.  Never  at  any  time 
very  acceptable  with  the  people  or  their  repre- 
sentatives, he  had  now  earned  a  full  measure  of 
odium  from  all  classes  ;  and  he  made  the  crowning 
mistake  of  letting  himself  drift  into  a  position  of 
rivalry  with  the  popular  Prince  of  Wales. 

To  understand  and  appreciate  the  facts  connected 
with  the  Conferences  at  Bruges,  and  especially  with 
that  in  which  Wyclif  was  engaged,  one  must  bear 
in  mind  the  clear  distinction  between  the  attack  on 
the  property  of  the  English  Church  and  the  broader 
and  more  significant  assault  on  the  papal  as- 
sumptions. The  first  movement  was  a  question 
of  domestic  discipline,  calculated  in  the  eyes  of 
Wyclif  and  his  friends  to  purify  and  re-invigorate 
the  national  Church,  whilst  even  laymen  like  the 
Duke  of  Lancaster  could  persuade  themselves  that 


122  John  Wyclif.  F1375 

they  were  doing  God  service  by  reducing  the  plethora 
from  which  religion  so  manifestly  suffered  in  England. 
The  other  movement  was  one  of  national  defence 
against  a  foreign  invader,  a  contest  having  for  its 
object  the  extrusion  of  an  audacious  tyranny  which 
had  been  set  up  by  aliens  in  the  civil  as  well  as  in 
the  spiritual  domain,  and  one  in  which  the  strongest 
champions  of  the  national  Church  might  and  did 
take  an  active  part.  There  could  be  no  doubt  that 
the  fight  with  Rome  was  more  widely  popular,  or  at 
any  rate  stirred  up  less  of  domestic  discord,  than 
that  which  converted  nearly  every  regular  and 
secular  clergyman  in  the  country  into  a  centre  of 
loquacious  disaffection. 

Things  would  probably  have  gone  better  with 
John  of  Gaunt  and  his  friends  if  they  had  pressed 
the  cause  against  Rome  some  years  earlier.  It  was 
natural  that  the  disasters  and  discredit  which  fell 
upon  the  country  during  the  last  few  years  of  the 
reign  of  Edward  III.  should  practically  destroy  our 
chance  of  prevailing  in  conference  over  the  papal 
representatives.  Our  virtual  defeat  at  Bruges  was  in 
a  measure  the  outcome  of  our  defeat  in  Aquitaine, 
at  Rochelle,  and  at  Portsmouth.  Beaten  on  land 
and  at  sea,  by  Frenchmen  and  Spaniards,  dishonoured 
at  home  by  the  King's  inglorious  old  age,  and  so 
divided  in  counsels  that  no  man,  prince  or  duke  or 
councillor,  could  act  with  sufficient  authority  and 
promptitude  in  the  true  interests  of  the  country,  we 
were  evidently  not  in  a  position  to  speak  at  Avignon 
as  we  could  have  spoken  five  or  ten  years  before. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE   CONFERENCE   AT   BRUGES. 


LMOST  everyone  in  England, 
except  the  alien  priests  and  the 
independent  monks  and  friars, 
was  keenly  opposed  to  the 
papal  provisions,  to  the  claim 
for  first-fruits  and  annata — one 
year's  revenue  from  the  bene- 
fice conferred — and  to  other 
pretexts  for  the  transference 
of  English  money  to  Avignon.  The  evil  had  been 
growing  for  many  years,  and  it  is  easy  to  understand 
the  satisfaction  with  which  John  Wyclif  would 
receive  his  commission  to  go  and  argue  the  matter 
out  with  the  delegates  from  Avignon,  and  to  tell 
the  representatives  of  the  Pope  that  England 
was  no  longer  to  be  his  milch  cow,  or  to  pay  him 
for  the  privilege  of  electing  her  own  bishops  and 
priests. 

123 


124  John  Wyclif.  [1373- 

It  was  hardly  Wyclifs  fault  that  he  could  not 
deliver  an  effective  message  of  this  kind,  or  that, 
having  delivered  his  message,  he  found  it  explained 
away  by  his  colleagues,  or  allowed  to  fall  to  the 
ground  for  want  of  enforcement  by  the  Government 
at  home.  Somewhere  perhaps  in  the  archives  of 
the  Vatican  there  is  a  record  of  the  Conference  at 
Bruges,  in  the  shape  of  a  report  from  the  nuncios. 
If  it  could  be  published  it  would  doubtless  provide 
us  with  an  interesting  account  of  the  arguments 
used  on  both  sides,  and  the  efforts  made  to  arrive  at 
an  understanding.  No  such  account  has  hitherto 
made  its  appearance,  and  we  can  only  conclude  from 
other  indications  that  Wyclif  spoke  out  freely,  that 
Rome  was  more  and  more  embittered  against  him 
from  that  time  forward,  that  he  greatly  regretted  the 
lame  and  impotent  conclusion  of  the  Conference, 
and  that  after  he  returned  from  Bruges  his  attitude 
towards  Rome  was  more  distinctly  hostile. 

The  question  of  provisions  was  of  course  the  most 
natural  line  of  attack  for  anyone  who  wished  to 
make  an  assault  upon  the  papal  assumptions.  In 
the  reign  of  Edward  III.  the  English  Church  had  in 
fact  become  a  sort  of  Roman  preserve.  Not  content 
with  occasionally  overriding  local  elections  or  royal 
nominations  to  bishoprics,  abbacies,  and  benefices  of 
every  kind,  the  popes  claimed  and  exercised  a  power 
to  provide  for  vacancies  before  they  occurred.  Chap- 
ters, conventual  bodies,  or  others  in  whom  the  right 
of  presentation  was  generally  vested,  found  them- 
selves not  unfrequently  confronted  with  a  new  supe- 
rior or  beneficiary — very  possibly  an  alien,  who  by 


I*"       >      , 3      >       > 


POPE  GREGORY  XI. 

1370-8. 


1377]  The  Conference  at  Bruges.  125 

influence  or  money  had  secured  his  nomination  from 
the  Pope,  and  now  presented  himself  for  election  by 
virtue  of  a  document  signed  months  or  years  before- 
hand. The  Pope's  provisions,  amounting  as  they 
often  did  to  sheer  confiscation,  and  liable  to  the  very 
grossest  abuse,  were  more  than  once  denounced  by 
Parliament  as  an  intolerable  scandal  and  usurpation. 
In  the  year  1343,  and  again  in  1359,  statutes  were 
passed  to  restrain  or  debar  this  claim,  and  in  1353 
the  statute  of  Praemunire  made  it  a  serious  crime, 
punishable  by  severe  pains  and  penalties,  to  allow 
the  Pope's  writ  to  run  in  England,  or  to  appeal 
from  England  to  Avignon.  But  these  statutes  were 
constantly  evaded,  and  the  anti-clerical  Council  of 
1 371-1375  determined  to  make  an  effort  to  get  rid 
of  the  abuse. 

In  1373  the  King  sent  a  special  mission  to  Avign- 
on to  discuss  the  matter  with  Pope  Gregory  XL, 
who  had  succeeded  Urban  V.  in  13/1.  There 
were  four  members  of  this  delegation — John  Gil- 
bert, Bishop  of  Bangor ;  William  de  Berton,  a  distin- 
guished graduate  of  Oxford,  resident  at  Merton,  and 
subsequently  Chancellor  of  the  University ;  Uhtred 
Bolton,  a  monk  of  Dunholme,  and  John  de  Shepeye. 
They  represented  the  difficulty  which  had  been 
created  in  England  by  the  existing  irregularities  of 
reservation,  collation,  and  provision,  especially  when 
English  clergymen  were  displaced  by  aliens.  Greg- 
ory seems  to  have  listened  without  replying;  but  it 
was  arranged,  now  or  subsequently,  that  a  confer- 
ence should  be  held  in  the  following  year  at  Bruges, 
between    representatives   of   the    Pope    and   of   the 


126  John  Wyclif.  [1373- 

English  King,  when  the  whole  question  was  to  be 
thoroughly  discussed. 

Probably  in  order  to  provide  trustworthy  materi- 
als for  this  Conference,  a  Commission  was  issued  by 
the  Crown  early  in  1374,  charged  to  inquire  into  and 
secure  an  exact  return  of  all  benefices  and  dignities 
throughout  the  kingdom  in  the  hands  of  Italians, 
Frenchmen,  or  other  aliens,  with  their  names,  incum- 
bents, and  yearly  value.  The  return  was  willingly 
furnished  by  the  bishops,  and  it  was  sent  in  to  the 
Chancellor's  court.  The  figures  are  said  to  have 
caused  a  good  deal  of  surprise  to  those  who  had  not 
realised  how  far  the  alienation  of  English  benefices 
had  already  proceeded. 

Two  Conferences  at  Bruges  had  been  arranged  for 
about  the  same  time.  England  had  asked  the  Pope, 
or  at  any  rate  had  concurred  in  inviting  him,  to 
settle  the  terms  of  an  armistice  in  Europe ;  and 
for  this  purpose  Gregory  sent  his  legate  to  preside 
over  a  meeting  between  John  of  Gaunt  and  the  Earl 
of  Salisbury,  representing  England,  and  the  Dukes 
of  Anjou  and  Burgundy.  A  year's  cessation  of  arms 
was  agreed  upon  in  June,  1375  ;  and  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster  was  instantly  twitted  at  home  with  having 
begged  for  peace  after  being  beaten  in  the  field. 

The  ecclesiastics  had  been  waiting  for  the  poli- 
ticians to  finish.  They  were  originally  appointed  to 
meet  on  St.  John  Baptist's  Day,  1374,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  beginning  of  August,  1375,  that  the  Com- 
missioners were  able  to  set  to  work.  The  Commis- 
sion included  Gilbert  of  Bangor,  who  had  been  to 
Avignon    in    1873  '■>   Dr.    John    Wyclif,  professor   of 


1377]  7*he  Conference  at  Bruges.  127 

theology ;  John  Guter,  Dean  of  Sechow ;  Simon  de 
Multon,  doctor  of  laws  ;  William  de  Berton,  Robert 
Bealknap,  and  John  de  Henyngton.  The  Pope  was 
represented  by  three  nuncios — Bernard,  Bishop  of 
Pampeluna ;  Ladulph,  Bishop  of  Senigaglia,  and 
Sancho,  Provincial  of  Valenza. 

The  position  of  Wyclif  in  connection  with  this 
special  embassy  may  be  denned  with  greater  clear- 
ness than  would  otherwise  be  possible  by  means  of 
an  extract  from  the  Exchequer  accounts  of  the  year 
1375.  The  entry  supplies  "  details  of  the  settlement 
of  Master  John  Wyclyff,  professor  of  theology,  in 
respect  of  his  travelling  and  other  expenses  on  a 
royal  embassy  in  the  parts  of  Flanders,  for  the  transac- 
tion of  the  King's  business  therein,  during  the  forty- 
eighth  year  of  the  reign."  Wyclif  "  accounts  for  60 1. 
received  personally  from  the  exchequer  on  3 1  July  " — 
possibly  at  the  port  of  embarkation.  "  From  27 
July,  in  the  year  48,  on  which  day  he  set  out  from 
London  for  Flanders,  to  4  September,  when  he 
returned,  namely  50  days  at  20s.  a  day — 50  1.;  and 
for  crossing  and  re-crossing  the  sea,  42s.  3d.  Ex- 
pended, 52  1.  2s.  3d.     Credit,  7  1.  17s.  9d." 

Other  entries  in  the  same  accounts  show  that  John 
of  Gaunt,  on  an  embassy  to  Flanders  in  1364,  received 
one  hundred  shillings  a  day  ;  Sir  Henry  le  Scrope,  on 
another  mission,  had  an  allowance  of  forty  shillings ; 
and  Reginald  Newport,  despatched  on  the  King's 
business  in  the  jubilee  year,  was  paid  at  the  rate  of 
thirteen  shillings  and  fourpence  a  day.  Wyclif's 
treatment,  therefore,  seems  to  have  been  fairly  liberal, 
but  it  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  exceptionally  hand- 


128  John  Wyclif,  [1373 

some  for  a  Royal  Commissioner.  In  the  first  year  of 
Edward's  reign  the  Bishop  of  Worcester,  who  was 
sent  to  Avignon  in  order  to  secure  a  dispensation  for 
the  marriage  of  the  young  King  to  Philippa,  received 
an  allowance  of  five  marks  a  day  for  299  days. 
The  value  of  money  was  higher  in  1327  than  in 
1375,  and  the  treatment  of  this  bishop  must  have 
been  at  least  three  times  and  a  half  as  good  as  that 
of  Wyclif. 

The  negotiations  ended  in  an  unfortunate  com- 
promise. It  was  agreed  that  the  Pope  should  desist 
from  making  reservations  of  benefices  in  England, 
but  only  on  condition  that  the  English  King  should 
no  longer  confer  benefices  by  his  writ  of  quare 
impedit.  Evidently  the  whole  question  was  left  un- 
settled. Even  if  both  parties  had  acted  upon  this 
agreement,  which  they  did  not,  more  harm  than  good 
would  have  been  done.  Englishmen  had  hoped  to 
see  the  authority  of  the  monarch  in  his  own  kingdom 
vindicated,  and  admitted  by  the  Pope's  delegates  ; 
but  instead  of  this  there  was  a  formal  limitation  of 
his  authority,  and  nothing  had  been  effected  to  estab- 
lish the  rights  of  chapters  and  other  ecclesiastical 
patrons.  It  is  true  that  claims  were  made,  then  or 
subsequently,  that  the  Pope  had  given  way  on  other 
points,  and  that  the  nuncios  had  pledged  him  by 
word  of  mouth  to  abstain  from  certain  acts  to  which 
the  English  Commissioners  had  taken  exception.  It 
is  also  possible  that  minor  points  were  reserved  at 
Bruges,  and  settled  at  leisure  in  the  course  of  1376; 
for  in  the  Parliament  of  the  following  year  (when  the 
"  King's  friends  "  were  in  power  again)  mention  was 


QUEEN  PHILIPPA,  CONSORT  OF  EDWARD  III. 

FROM   A   PORTRAIT   IN   THE   HALL   OF  QUEEN'S  COLLEGE,  OXFORD. 


1377]  The  Conference  at  Bruges.  129 

made  of  other  concessions  on  Gregory's  part,  though 
there  was  no  formal  document  to  show  for  them,  and 
nothing  which  could  be  held  to  bind  future  popes. 
These  alleged  concessions  were  to  the  effect  that  the 
Pope  would  not  take  action  with  regard  to  vacant 
sees  until  a  free  election  had  been  made  ;  that  he 
would  abate  his  demands  in  the  matter  of  first-fruits  ; 
and  that  he  would  use  moderation  in  respect  of  pro- 
visions and  the  nomination  of  aliens.  Granting  the 
genuineness  of  these  concessions,  it  is  clear  that 
matters  were  not  much  mended  by  them. 

It  may  well  occur  to  a  man  of  plain  ideas  and 
common  sense  at  the  present  time  that  the  despatch 
of  the  mission  to  Bruges  was  something  of  a  mistake. 
What  was  expected  of  it  ?  Surely  not  the  voluntary 
consent  of  Rome  to  forgo  the  advantages  which 
she  had  usurped  and  enjoyed  for  many  years.  The 
journey  to  Bruges  was  a  sign  of  weakness,  or  at  any 
rate  a  mark  of  concession  in  a  matter  which,  logically 
considered,  left  no  room  for  concession. 

There  was  one  course  which  the  English  Govern- 
ment might  have  adopted — which,  in  fact,  it  had 
begun  to  adopt,  and  which  only  called  for  steady 
resolution  and  persistence.  If  the  King,  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  with  the  Chancel- 
lor and  Treasurer,  supported  by  the  barons,  knights, 
and  burgesses — if,  that  is  to  say,  the  Royal  Council 
and  the  Parliament  had  been  determined  to  put  an 
end  to  papal  provisions  in  England,  they  might  have 
done  so  by  enforcing  the  laws  already  on  the  statute 
book,  leaving  the  "  French  popes  "  to  say  what  they 
liked,  and  never  going  back  upon  their  word.     That 


130  John  Wyclif.  [1373- 

is  what  the  enemies  of  Rome  and  Avignon  thought 
they  were  doing  all  along. 

For  what  had  already  happened  in  respect  of  the 
papal  assumptions  ?  After  Edward  came  of  age,  no 
further  tribute  was  paid  to  the  Pope.  In  1340  the 
chancellorship  had  for  the  first  time  been  given  to  a 
layman,  as  though  to  make  the  subsequent  steps 
more  easy  of  accomplishment.  In  1343  a  petition 
was  presented  by  Parliament  to  the  King,  condemn- 
ing the  provisions  and  reservations  of  the  popes. 
In  135 1,  effect  was  given  to  this  petition  by  a 
statute  declaring  that  the  Pope  had  no  authority  to 
provide  a  benefice  with  an  incumbent  before  the 
vacancy  had  occurred.  Then  followed  the  statute 
of  Praemunire  in  1353,  forbidding  appeals  from  the 
King's  courts  in  courts  beyond  the  seas,  on  pain  of 
outlawry,  forfeiture,  and  imprisonment.  Ten  years 
later  it  was  forbidden  under  the  same  penalties 
to  introduce  bulls  or  other  instruments  of  the  Pope 
into  England ;  and  the  statute  of  Provisors  was 
more  strictly  interpreted,  so  as  to  forbid  the  patron- 
age of  the  Pope  altogether.  In  1366,  John's  tribute 
having  been  formally  demanded  by  Urban  V.,  was 
formally  and  precisely  refused.  In  1370  ecclesiastics 
were  removed  from  the  principal  offices  of  State. 

Thus  for  nearly  forty  years  the  effort  had  been 
continuous,  and  the  aim  was  to  all  appearance  con- 
sistent. Strange  that  the  sudden  arrest  of  the  move- 
ment, the  partial  and  temporary  reversal  of  progress 
already  achieved,  should  follow  directly  upon  the 
attainment  of  power  by  those  who  had  only  craved 
an  opportunity  of  carrying  the  matter  to  a  definite 


1377]  The  Conference  at  Bruges.  1 3 1 

issue.  For  there  was  no  question  that  a  backward 
instead  of  a  forward  step  had  now  been  taken,  and 
that  Rome  had  rather  gained  a  victory  than  suffered 
a  defeat.  The  clerical  Commissioners  had  gone  to 
Bruges  in  order  to  clip  the  claws  of  papal  usurpation 
in  England.  They  came  back  after  arranging  a 
simple  quid  pro  quo  between  the  Pope  and  the  King, 
and  abandoning  the  principle  of  national  indepen- 
dence, on  which  the  whole  strength  of  their  case 
rested. 

Of  one  thing  we  may  be  fairly  certain  ;  no  one 
would  be  more  disappointed  with  this  result  than 
Wyclif.  The  only  ground  on  which  the  Commis- 
sioners could  have  persuaded  themselves  that  they 
were  making  a  good  bargain  would  be  that  they  had 
brought  the  Pope  to  renounce  his  claim  to  reserve 
benefices,  whereas  the  English  King  had  merely 
undertaken  not  to  supply  vacancies  by  an  arbitrary 
exercise  of  his  power,  and  without  regard  for  the 
spiritual  authority  of  Rome.  No  doubt  the  worst 
abuse  of  all  was  the  papal  traffic  in  English  benefices, 
and  the  disposal  of  next  presentations  without  refer- 
ence to  local  rights  and  needs.  The  Commissioners 
may  have  flattered  themselves  that  they  had  got  rid 
of  this  abuse  without  paying  too  dear  for  it.  But 
that  was  not  what  people  thought  at  home ;  and  it 
is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  shrewd  mind  of  Wyclif 
could  have  been  led  away  by  such  a  contention,  or 
that  he  acquiesced  in  any  finding  or  conclusion  of  the 
Conference  which  would  have  the  effect  of  strength- 
ening instead  of  putting  an  end  to  the  authority  of 
the  Pope  in  England. 


132  John  Wyclif.  H373- 

The  commissionership  was  an  honourable  appoint- 
ment. The  Pope  had  asked  King  Edward  to  send 
to  Bruges  "  claros  scientia  ac  laudandae  virtutis,  et 
cuncta  prudentia  praeditos,  cultoresjustitiae,  sedulosque 
pads  et  concordiae  zelatores."  It  was  no  small  thing 
to  have  been  designated  in  response  to  such  an 
invitation ;  but,  so  far  as  temporal  advantage  was 
concerned,  Wyclif  was  not  much  the  richer  by  his 
journey  to  Flanders.  He  had  been  presented  by  the 
Crown  to  the  living  of  Lutterworth,  in  Leicestershire 
— of  the  annual  value  of  £26 — some  months  before 
the  Commission  was  nominated.  Of  course  he  would 
have  to  make  provision  for  the  superintendence  of 
the  parish  during  his  absence,  and,  as  his  expenses 
at  Bruges  must  have  been  considerable,  this  would 
swallow  up  nearly  as  much  as  he  could  have  saved 
out  of  his  allowance.  There  was  indeed  no  grudging 
of  rewards  amongst  the  Commissioners  on  their 
return.  The  Bishop  of  Bangor  was  promoted  to  the 
see  of  Hereford,  vacated  in  1375  by  Courtenay's 
translation  to  London.  Berton  was  placed  on 
another  Commission,  and  afterwards  became  Chan- 
cellor of  Oxford.  Wyclif  was  nominated  on  Novem- 
ber 6th  to  the  prebend  of  Aust,  in  the  cathedral 
church  of  Westbury,  in  the  diocese  of  Worcester. 
It  would  have  been  in  keeping  with  the  ordinary 
clerical  morality  of  the  day  if  he  had  enjoyed  the 
fruits  of  this  appointment,  and  of  as  many  more 
sinecures  as  his  patron  Lancaster  might  have  obtained 
for  him.  But  his  past  utterances  had  made  it  im- 
possible for  him  to  become  a  pluralist,  and  so  the 
prebend  was  refused.     Less  than  a  fortnight  after 


1377]  The  Conference  at  Bruges.        '      133 

his  nomination  we  find  that  it  was  granted  to 
another. 

The  discontent  of  Englishmen  had  meanwhile 
come  to  a  head  ;  and  at  last  the  group  which  had 
held  office  up  to  1370,  and  which  had  been  dismissed 
by  royal  ordinance  following  on  a  parliamentary 
petition,  secured  another  chance  of  directing  the 
affairs  of  the  nation.  John  of  Gaunt  had  neglected 
to  have  Parliament  summoned  *  since  November, 
1373  ;  but  his  elder  brother,  always  the  most  authori- 
tative of  his  father's  subjects,  though  never  a  politi- 
cian, and  now  fast  approaching  his  end,  caused  the 
writs  to  be  issued  at  the  beginning  of  1376.  There 
could  be  no  question  as  to  the  temper  of  the  men 
who  would  be  returned  to  these  writs.  The  new 
House  of  Commons  represented  by  a  great  majority 
not  merely  the  grievances  due  to  over-taxation  and 
the  widespread  misery  of  the  country,  but  also  the 
indignation  caused  by  Lancaster's  attempt  to  limit 
the  privileges  of  Parliament,  the  disgust  of  English- 
men at  the  two  inglorious  compacts  at  Bruges,  and 
a  determination  to  put  an  end  to  the  open  scandals 
of  the  Court. 

The  old  official  group,  with  Bishop  Wykeham  at 
their  head,  and  recruited  by  a  still  stronger  man  in 
Bishop  Courtenay,  now  returned  to  power ;  and 
before  the  session  came  to  an  end  a  Committee  of 
barons  and  bishops  was  appointed  to  share  the 
responsibility  of  the  leaders  in  the  Commons — an 
arrangement  manifestly  contributing  (so  far  as  it 
goes)  to  the  development  of  the  Cabinet  as  distin- 
guished  from    the   holders   of  particular   offices  of 


134  John  Wyclif.  [1373 

State.  The  Committee  of  Lords  in  1376  appears  to 
have  been  intended  in  part  to  meet  the  difficulty 
which  had  been  raised  by  the  anti-clerical  petition  of 
1370.  It  enabled  the  responsible  leaders  to  associate 
with  themselves  any  capable  bishop  to  whom  objec- 
tion might  be  taken  as  a  holder  of  office. 

So  long  as  the  Prince  of  Wales  continued  to  live, 
and  for  a  month  beyond — that  is  to  say,  for  the  ten 
weeks  between  April  28th  and  July  9th — the  Good 
Parliament  used  its  opportunities  with  courage  and 
judgment.  By  the  vigour  of  its  action,  by  the  inde- 
pendent spirit  of  its  leading  members  and  its  digni- 
fied Speaker,  and  by  the  character  of  its  discussions 
and  resolutions,  it  will  hardly  fail  to  suggest  to  the 
reader  a  curious,  though  not  a  very  close,  parallel 
with  the  earlier  Stuart  Parliaments.  Indeed  the 
varying  constitution  of  the  Royal  Council  during 
the  years  1370  to  1399,  the  dismissal  and  recall  of 
ministers,  the  alternations  of  policy  between  the 
"  King's  friends  "  and  the  clerical  party,  seem  almost 
out  of  place  before  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  The 
fact  is  that  the  organism  of  Parliament  developed 
with  marvellous  rapidity  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  The  reigns  of  Edward  III.  and 
his  two  grandsons  were  favourable  to  the  growth 
of  parliamentary  authority  and  privilege,  and  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  great 
Council  of  the  realm  had  attained  a  position  of  con- 
siderable strength,  which,  however,  it  soon  lost,  and 
did  not  regain  for  something  like  two  hundred  years. 

The  first  task  of  the  Good  Parliament  was  to  apply 
a  remedy  to  the  accumulated  abuses  of  the  Court, 


13771  The  Conference  at  Bruges.  135 

The  dishonest  were  brought  to  book ;  some  were 
dismissed,  others  were  made  to  disgorge,  and  others 
again  sought  to  insure  half  the  fruits  of  their  em- 
bezzlements by  returning  the  other  half.  Amongst 
the  dismissed  servants  of  the  Crown  was  William 
Lyons,  who  had  known  how  to  provide  large  sums 
of  money  both  for  the  King  and  for  himself.  When 
the  new  ministers  attacked  him,  he  had  the  insolence 
to  send  to  the  palace  a  bag  of'  gold  by  way  of  a 
bribe.  "  Keep  it,"  Edward  advised  those  who  were 
present,  "  he  owes  us  this  and  much  more ;  he  only 
offers  us  our  own  !  "  Another  and  a  larger  bribe 
was  sent  in  a  barrel  from  the  city  ;  but  the  men  into 
whose  hands  it  came  would  not  have  the  course  of 
justice  interfered  with,  and  they  sent  the  barrel  back. 
The  doting  King,  seeing  that  his  ministers  and  Par- 
liament were  in  earnest,  and  knowing  that  Alice 
Perrers  had  incurred  the  hatred  of  his  people,  sent 
them  a  humbly  worded  petition  on  her  behalf — a 
petition  recalling  the  abject  submissiveness  of  his 
unfortunate  father,  Edward  II.,  when  the  toils  were 
closing  around  him,  and  reminding  one  of  the 
phenomenal  humility  of  his  elder  grandson,  Richard 
II.  The  bishops  humoured  their  monarch  so  far  as 
to  let  his  mistress  depart  unharmed,  after  swearing 
that  she  would  never  come  back  to  Court. 

John  of  Gaunt  began  by  showing  fight.  The  nom- 
inated knights,  whose  uppermost  thought  may  have 
been  one  of  resentment  for  Lancaster's  failure  in  the 
field,  and  for  the  tame  treaty  which  he  had  negoti- 
ated at  Bruges,  united  with  the  popularly  elected 
burgesses  in  requiring  an   account  of  expenditure 


136  John  Wyclif.  H373 

during  the  previous  five  or  six  years.  They  went  to 
the  House  of  Lords  to  prefer  their  demand,  headed 
by  Peter  de  la  Mare,  Speaker  of  the  Commons. 
Lancaster  greeted  them  in  a  rather  uproarious 
mood.  "  What  do  these  base  and  low-born  knights 
attempt  ?  "  he  cried.  "  Do  they  take  themselves  for 
kings  and  princes  of  the  land?"  But  though  he 
stormed  and  raged,  threatening  all  who  opposed 
him  with  the  vengeance  of  the  Crown,  the  protection 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  sufficient  to  maintain  the 
authority  of  the  Commons.  Lancaster  was  discreet 
enough  to  keep  away  from  the  meetings  of  the 
Council,  and  for  a  time  the  representatives  of  the 
people  had  their  own  way. 

De  la  Mare  seems  to  have  had  the  courage  of  a 
Lenthall.  When  the  customary  request  for  a  sub- 
sidy came  before  the  Commons  in  the  name  of  the 
monarch,  the  Speaker  replied  that  "  the  King  needed 
not  the  substance  of  his  poor  subjects,  if  he  were 
well  and  faithfully  governed ;  which  he  offered  to 
prove  effectually,  and  promised  that  if  it  were  found 
that  the  King  had  need,  his  subjects  should  be  ready 
most  gladly  to  help  him  according  to  their  power." 
This  Peter  de  la  Mare  was  a  man  of  considerable 
personal  influence.  He  was  steward  to  the  Earl  of 
March,  who  had  married  the  daughter  of  Lionel  of 
Clarence.  Probably  also  he  was  a  near  relative  to 
Thomas  de  la  Mare,  the  powerful  Abbot  of  St. 
Alban's.  Nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  his 
nomination  as  Speaker  to  a  Parliament  in  which  the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  the  clericals  had  the  upper 
hand. 


1377]  The  Coriference  at  Bruges.  1 3  7 

Unhappily — for  our  sympathy  with  Wyclif  cannot 
constrain  us  to  sympathy  with  his  arrogant  patron,  at 
any  rate  against  the  Parliament  of  1376 — the  Prince 
of  Wales  died  on  the  8th  of  June,  leaving  a  boy  of 
eleven  as  heir-apparent  to  the  Crown.  The  House 
of  Commons  did  not  allow  itself  to  be  demoralised 
by  the  sudden  removal  of  its  main  supporter  near 
the  throne,  nor  did  the  "  King's  friends  "  venture  to 
undo  the  work  of  the  popular  Prince  whilst  he  was 
yet  fresh  in  his  grave.  The  session  ran  its  average 
course,  and  Parliament  was  not  dismissed  for  thirty- 
one  days.  The  Commons  requested  that  the  young 
Prince  should  be  brought  in  evidence  before  them — 
a  constitutional  act,  yet  doubtless  intended  as  a  hint 
for  the  Duke  of  Lancaster.  They  held  on  their  way, 
and  completed  the  petitions  on  which  they  had  been 
engaged,  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and  forty; 
and  then,  probably  with  much  misgiving,  the  knights 
and  burgesses  went  home. 

Parliament  had  not  long  been  dispersed  when  John 
of  Gaunt  resumed  his  old  place  in  the  Council,  and 
dismissed  under  a  royal  warrant  the  Committee  of 
Lords  above  mentioned.  The  banished  courtiers 
were  recalled,  including  Lord  Latimer  and  Alice 
Perrers  ;  Sir  Peter  de  la  Mare  was  thrown  into  prison  ; 
the  Bishop  of  Winchester  was  deprived  of  his  tem- 
poralities, and  the  acts  of  the  Good  Parliament  were 
declared  null  and  void.  In  due  time  a  new  Parliament 
was  summoned,  and  Lancaster  so  worked  upon  the 
sheriffs,  who  had  the  nomination  of  the  knights,  as 
well  as  great  influence  over  the  freeholders,  that 
scarcely   a   single   member   of    the   packed    House 


138  John  Wyclif.  U373 

of  1377  had  a  word  to  say  against  his  arbitrary 
conduct. 

During  the  session  of  this  Parliament  Edward  III., 
who  had  celebrated  the  jubilee  of  his  birth  by  formally 
recognising  English  as  the  national  language,  cele- 
brated the  jubilee  of  his  accession  to  the  throne  by 
a  general  pardon  ;  but  John  of  Gaunt  contrived 
that  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  should  be  excluded 
by  name  from  the  benefits  of  the  proclamation.  A 
story  which  was  current  at  the  time,  or  not  long 
afterwards,  professed  to  give  a  personal  (and  perhaps 
it  would  have  been  an  adequate)  reason  for  the 
relentless  animosity  with  which  the  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster pursued  the  disgraced  Bishop.  William  of 
Wykeham  is  said  to  have  declared  that  Queen 
Philippa  had  told  him  on  her  death-bed  how,  when 
she  was  confined  at  Ghent  in  1340,  she  had  given 
birth  to  a  daughter,  and  had  overlain  it  in  the  night. 
Fearful  of  her  husband's  anger,  he  being  absent 
at  the  time,  she  had  substituted  a  boy  for  the  dead 
child.  This  boy,  according  to  the  Bishop,  or  to 
the  inventor  of  the  fable,  was  the  wrong-headed  and 
obstreperous  John  of  Gaunt,  who  had  manifestly 
been  born  for  a  Flemish  burgher,  and  not  for  an 
English  prince. 

Unquestionably  if  such  a  story  reached  the  Duke 
of  Lancaster's  ears,  it  might  account  for  his  hatred  of 
Wykeham.  Of  course  it  cannot  be  accepted,  for  vari- 
ous and  sufficient  reasons.  Chaucer  has  been  quoted 
as  an  authority  for  the  light  in  which  the  overlying  of 
children  was  regarded  in  those  days ;  for  he  says  in 
The  Parsons   Tale  that  "  if  a  woman  by  negligence 


1377J  The  Conference  at  Bruges.  139 

overlyeth  her  child  in  her  sleeping,  it  is  homicide  and 
deadly  sin."  And  a  bishop  who  had  confessed  his 
queen,  and  shrived  her  of  such  a  sin — especially  a 
high-minded  bishop  like  William  of  Wykeham — 
would  be  most  unlikely  to  repeat  the  story  in  order 
to  serve  his  private  ends. 

Though  the  Good  Parliament  had  had  so  short  an 
existence,  and  its  work  was  overruled  as  soon  as  it 
had  been  dissolved,  there  can  be  no  question  of  its 
importance  as  a  landmark  of  constitutional  history. 
It  is  important  also  from  our  immediate  point  of 
view ;  for  one  cannot  but  be  startled  to  find  a  man 
like  Wyclif,  irreproachable  in  his  moral  character, 
whose  every  act  reveals  a  roused  and  wakeful  con- 
science, engaged  in  public  affairs  on  the  side  of  a 
man  so  incongruous,  unsympathetic,  and  unpopular, 
as  John  of  Gaunt.  Nothing,  indeed,  could  testify 
more  eloquently  to  the  high  character  and  spotless 
reputation  of  Wyclif  than  the  fact  that  his  political 
association  with  Lancaster,  and  indirectly  with  Alice 
Perrers  and  the  peculators  of  the  royal  household, 
did  not  cover  his  name  with  a  cloud  of  suspicion  and 
obloquy.  The  very  worst  that  has  been  said  of  him, 
apart  from  his  heretical  opinions,  is  the  accusation 
that  he  became  a  heretic  from  selfish  and  vindictive 
motives  ;  and  we  shall  see  that  there  is  no  reasonable 
ground  whatever  on  which  a  charge  of  this  kind  could 
be  based. 

It  is  true  that  he  suffered  severely  by  meddling 
with  political  affairs,  as  many  a  man  of  spiritual 
fervour  and  lofty  enthusiasm,  committing  his  bark 
to  that  treacherous  sea,  has  suffered   since  his  time. 


140  John  Wyclif.  [1377 

So  long  as  Lancaster  was  really  powerful,  whilst  the 
King  was  yet  capable  of  personal  intervention  in 
public  life,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  held  the  enemies 
of  his  brother  in  check,  Wyclif  also  was  safe  under 
the  protection  of  the  Court.  But  when  the  Prince 
was  dead,  when  the  King  was  dying  amidst  con- 
tempt and  neglect,  and  when  Lancaster's  accumulated 
failures  and  overbearing  conduct  had  made  the 
populace  actively  and  openly  hostile  to  him,  the 
animosity  of  the  clerics  against  Wyclif  could  no 
longer  be  restrained.  His  persecution  by  the  Church 
authorities  began  in  1377;  but  the  machinery  of 
persecution  was  set  in  motion  early  in  1376,  at  the 
very  time  when  John  of  Gaunt  had  retired  from  the 
royal  Council,  and  before  it  seemed  probable  that 
the  Duke  would  speedily  regain  his  power. 

A  new  and  striking  figure  now  appears  upon  the 
stage.  Courtenay  was  the  prominent  champion  of 
the  orthodoxy  of  his  day  ;  and,  in  order  that  we  may 
have  a  clear  perception  of  the  events  in  which 
Wyclif  and  Courtenay  enacted  the  leading  parts, 
it  may  be  well  to  glance  backwards  at  the  internal 
history  of  the  English  Church,  and  at  the  character 
of  its  principal  rulers,  since  Wyclif  began  to  attract 
the  notice  of  his  contemporaries. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

WYCLIF  AND   THE   NATIONAL   CHURCH. 


ROM  the  death  of  Bradwardine 
onwards,  the  line  of  English 
primates  —  Islip,  Langham, 
Whittlesey,  Sudbury,  Courte- 
nay  —  became  more  and  more 
closely  associated  with  the 
political  movements  of  the 
day,  as  indeed  could  not  well 
have  been  avoided  in  that  critical  epoch  of  the 
Christian  Church. 

Bradwardine  was  a  Schoolman  and  a  student,  as 
well  as  a  man  of  affairs.  His  friends  must  have  had 
fairly  good  hope,  on  his  nomination  by  the  King  in 
1349,  that  his  term  of  office  would  be  marked  by 
more  than  ordinary  independence  and  vigour.  He 
had  distinguished  himself  at  Oxford  by  the  part 
which  he  took  in  opposing  the  extravagant  claims 
of  an   Italian  archdeacon,    Cardinal  de  Mora,  who, 

141 


142  John   Wyclif.  H349- 

not  content  with  sending  a  deputy  to  make  as  much 
money  as  possible  out  of  the  post,  coolly  assumed 
authority  over  the  university.  Something  has 
already  been  said  of  Bradwardine's  liberal  opinions, 
and  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  have  been 
out  of  favour  at  Avignon.  At  Edward's  request, 
Clement  VI.  had  backed  his  nomination  by  a  bull 
of  provision,  and  he  pettishly  declared  that,  if  the 
English  King  asked  him  to  make  a  bishop  out  of  a 
jackass,  he  could  not  refuse.  This  was  soon  after 
the  battle  of  Crecy  and  the  taking  of  Calais,  when 
Edward  was  practically  supreme  in  France  as  well 
as  in  England.  The  new  Archbishop  was  enter- 
tained by  Clement  at  a  banquet,  on  the  day  of  his 
consecration,  and  one  of  the  cardinals  thought  it  a 
good  jest  to  send  a  donkey  into  the  banqueting 
hall,  with  a  man  on  his  back  who  prayed  that  the 
quadruped  might  be  made  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. The  insult  was  resented  even  by  the  Pope, 
and  it  was  certainly  not  calculated  to  improve  the 
relations  between  the  English  Primate  and  the 
Papal  Court.  But  the  plague  cut  short  a  most 
promising  career,  before  Bradwardine  had  had  an 
opportunity  of  showing  his  mettle  as  a  ruler  of  men. 
Simon  Islip,  who  had  been  one  of  the  King's  sec- 
retaries— a  fairly  safe  channel  of  ecclesiastical  promo- 
tion in  those  days, — was  a  "  doctor  of  decretals,"  that 
is  to  say,  of  the  canon  law,  and  a  man  of  inexhaust- 
ible energy.  He  was  appointed  by  Clement  in  the 
same  manner  as  his  two  predecessors,  by  a  bull 
couched  in  terms  which  probably  did  something  to 
hasten  the  passing  of  the  statute  of  Provisors — " per 


1377]        Wyclif  and  the  National  Church.        143 

provisioncm  apostolicam,  spreta  electione  facta  de  coy 
The  Pope  snapped  his  fingers  at  the  election  by 
the  chapter,  but  he  took  care  to  nominate  the  same 
man  whom  they  had  elected,  and  whom  the  King 
had  recommended,  in  the  case  of  Islip  as  well  as  in 
that  of  Bradwardine. 

If  Clement's  bull  was  arrogantly  worded,  Edward 
had  himself  to  thank,  for  he  had  actually  begged  the 
Pope  to  override  the  first  electi6n  of  Bradwardine 
by  a  bull  of  provision.  And  it  may  be  pointed  out 
by  way  of  parenthesis  that  if  papal  provisions  had 
not  been  profitable  to  the  Crown  in  more  ways  than 
one,  and  if  the  Crown  had  not  varied  its  protests 
against  them  by  occasionally  turning  them  to  account, 
they  might  have  been  abolished  out  of  hand.  It 
suited  the  King,  moreover,  to  keep  in  reserve  this 
check  upon  the  power  of  the  English  clergy,  and  we 
may  somewhat  question  the  anxiety  of  Edward  and 
his  friends  to  dispense  altogether  with  the  advantage 
of  a  timely  resort  to  Rome.  The  statute  of  Provisors 
was  passed  by  Parliament  in  the  second  year  of 
Islip's  primacy,  and  it  was  followed  two  years  later  by 
the  statute  of  Praemunire.  It  has  already  been  men- 
tioned that  neither  statute  was  immediately  effective ; 
provisions  and  reservations  went  on,  to  the  scandal 
of  all  good  churchmen,  for  generations  to  come. 

Islip  came  to  Canterbury  at  a  critical  moment. 
The  ever  memorable  visitation  of  the  plague  in  1349 
and  the  following  years — a  visitation  by  which  (we 
are  asked  to  believe)  as  many  as  one  quarter  of  the 
human  race  was  cut  off  within  four  years  :  one  half 
of  the  population  of  England  in  little  over  a  year  : 


144  John  Wyclif.  [1349 

one  hundred  thousand  in  London  alone — produced 
new  outbursts  of  religious  enthusiasm,  and  contrib- 
uted largely  to  the  moral  and  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  Black  Death 
was  the  benefactor  of  society  which  it  dissolved,  and 
of  humanity  which  it  decimated.  The  plague  of 
boils  on  man,  the  deadly  murrain  amongst  cattle,  the 
bloody  spectacles  of  the  Flagellants — all  were  on  the 
side  of  free  thought  and  the  free  expression  of 
thought,  for  all  encouraged  counsels  of  perfection. 
There  was  enough  already  to  set  in  motion  the  slowly 
grinding  mills  of  God,  from  which  even  the  fourteenth 
century  began  to  witness  the  production  of  a  new 
learning  and  a  reformed  religion.  None  of  the  older 
Schoolmen  whose  minds  had  restlessly  stirred  them- 
selves in  sleep — no  timid  student  of  Marsiglio  and 
Ockham,  plunged  into  a  musing  fit  by  reading  those 
daring  tomes,  about  the  time  when  John  Wyclif  was 
conning  his  grammar  at  Oxford — could  have  dreamed 
that  the  mighty  Church  of  Pius  and  Boniface  would 
so  accumulate  its  blunders  and  crimes  at  Avignon 
as  to  play  the  whole  game  into  the  hands  of  the 
heretics,  and  to  render  the  disruption  of  Christen- 
dom finally  inevitable.  And  surely  one  of  the  worst 
crimes  of  the  Papacy  throughout  this  blundering 
century  was  to  exact,  as  Clement  did,  the  jubilee 
pilgrimage  to  Rome  in  the  midst  of  the  most  horrible 
pestilence  on  record,  in  order  that  he  might  win  his 
expected  sacks  of  gold  at  the  cost  of  something  like  a 
million  human  lives.  The  Franciscans  alone  reckoned 
as  many  as  thirty  thousand  deaths  in  consequence 
of  this  enforced  pilgrimage. 


1377]        Wyclif  and  the  National  Church.        145 

Making  every  deduction  for  exaggeration  and 
miscounting,  it  is  plain  that  a  very  large  number  of 
the  priests,  as  well  as  of  their  congregations,  died  of 
the  successive  plagues  which  visited  England  in  the 
fourteenth  century.  Amongst  other  evils  which 
resulted  from  the  wholesale  mortality,  hundreds  of 
parishes  were  robbed  of  spiritual  guidance,  or  de- 
serted by  their  pastors  when  they  were  in  special 
need  of  help.  Hence  the  passage  in  Langland's 
Vision,    written    perhaps    after   the    second  plague 

(1361): 

"  Parsons  and  parish  priests 
Plaineth  to  their  bishops 
That  their  parish  hath  been  poor 
Since  the  pestilence, 
And  asketh  leave  and  license 
At  London  to  dwell, 
And  sing  for  simony — 
For  silver  is  sweet." 

The  Archbishop  did  his  best  to  cope  with  this  evil, 
and  to  convince  the  priests  that  it  was  part  of  their 
duty  to  suffer  with  their  people.  He  also  took  the 
sensible  course  of  ordaining  many  poor  survivors  of 
the  plague  who  had  lost  their  family  and  friends, 
their  heart  and  hope,  sending  them  into  the  deserted 
parishes.  And  that  they  might  have  a  rule  of  life 
beforehand,  and  know  what  their  new  vocation 
meant,  he  "  did  ordain  that  more  should  not  be 
given  to  priests  for  their  yearly  stipend  than  three 
pounds  six  shillings  and  eightpence,  which  " — Stow 
laconically  adds — "  caused  many  of  them  to  steal." 

Three  pounds  six-and-eightpence !  Multiply  the 
sum  by  ten,  to  get  a  rough  comparison  with  what 


146  John  Wyclif.  [1349- 

that  would  mean  in  our  own  days,  and  it  would  seem 
that  Islip's  poor  priests  were  not  even  passing  rich 
on  forty  pounds  a  year. 

It  is  a  question  how  far  these  humble  missioners 
put  into  Wyclif's  head  the  idea  of  his  russet  priests. 
At  any  rate  it  was  in  the  same  field  that  he  was 
subsequently  moved  to  labour. 

Islip  gave  many  signs  of  his  ability  as  an  adminis- 
trator; and  the  manner  in  which  he  dealt  with  the 
Flagellants  is  worth  mentioning  on  this  ground  alone. 
For  a  time  these  curious  products  of  physical  suffer- 
ing and  spiritual  elation  convulsed  the  minds  of 
many  devoted  men,  in  England  as  well  as  on  the 
continent.  The  history  of  these  fanatics  is  very 
much  the  same  as  that  of  irregular  religious  demon- 
strations in  all  ages.  There  were  the  same  ecstasies, 
the  same  ability  to  endure  pain,  the  same  conviction 
that  endurance  would  be  accounted  to  them  for  right- 
eousness, the  same  aggressive  bearing,  which  excited 
indignation  and  persecution.  Persecution,  too,  had 
its  usual  effect  in  fostering  what  it  tried  to  exter- 
minate. Only  phlegmatic  England,  of  all  the  western 
nations  of  Europe,  escaped  lightly  from  this  epidemic 
of  purely  human  origin.  It  was  condemned  in  a 
bull  from  the  Pope,  who  called  on  the  different 
monarchs  to  take  measures  for  its  repression.  To 
this  message  Edward  paid  no  attention,  and  the 
Archbishop  as  little  as  possible.  So  far  as  England 
was  concerned,  the  Flagellants  may  be  said  to  have 
been  tolerated  out  of  existence. 

Some  of  the  last  acts  of  Islip's  life — the  founda- 
tion of  Canterbury  Hall  at  Oxford,  the  exclusion  of 


1377]        Wyclif  and  the  National  Church.        147 

the  monks  at  the  end  of  1365,  and  the  appointment  of 
one  John  Wyclif,  a  secular  priest,  as  Warden — have 
generally  been  connected  with  the  biography  of  the 
Reformer,  with  which  they  have  probably  nothing 
to  do.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  Vicar  of  Mayfield, 
not  the  Rector  of  Fillingham,  who  was  Warden  of 
Canterbury  Hall  in  1365,  was  removed  by  Archbishop 
Langham,  appealed  unsuccessfully  to  the  Pope,  and 
lost  his  case  in  the  King's  Court  in  1372.  The  con- 
siderations which  identify  the  warden  with  Wyclif 
of  Mayfield  are  in  themselves  almost  strong  enough 
to  be  conclusive ;  but,  when  we  remember  what 
Wyclif  the  Reformer  was  doing  between  1365  and 
1372,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  the  old  Master  of 
Balliol  was  occupied  during  seven  years  in  fighting 
for  this  additional  honour  and  emolument.* 

Simon  Langham,  who  succeeded  Islip  in  1366,  was 
a  Benedictine  monk,  who  had  been  successively 
prior,  abbot,  treasurer,  Bishop  of  Ely,  and  chancellor 
in  what  we  may  call  for  convenience  the  ministries  of 
1 363- 1 366,  when  Wykeham  was  Keeper  of  the  Seal. 
He  was  naturally  a  wealthy  man,  and  had  had  time 


*  One  of  the  biographers  of  Wyclif,  maintaining  that  the  Canter- 
bury Hall  story  must  refer  to  him,  is  convinced  that  it  could  not 
refer  to  John  Wycliffe  of  Mayfield  because  the  latter  held  his  living 
continuously  from  before  1365  until  after  1372.  He  apparently 
forgot  that  the  Reformer  also  was  beneficed  during  the  whole  of  that 
time.  The  notion  of  Wyclif  as  a  pugnacious  and  baffled  pluralist  is 
too  absurd  to  be  accepted.  It  is  impossible  to  think  of  him  resigning 
the  mastership  of  Balliol  for  a  poor  country  living,  then  fighting  for 
Canterbury  Hall,  and  then  again  refusing  the  prebend  of  Aust,  all 
within  thirteen  or  fourteen  years.  Dr.  Shirley  has  a  note  on  "  The 
Two  John  Wyclifs,"  in  the  Appendix  to  his  edition  of  the  Fasciculi. 


148  John  Wyclif.  [1349- 

to  forget  any  strong  prejudices  which  he  may  have 
formed  in  favour  of  the  Pope  or  the  Orders  in  his 
younger  days.  If  it  had  been  possible  for  the  Pope 
to  override  his  election,  he  would  probably  have 
done  so,  for  Langham  had  been  a  Minister  of  the 
Crown  when  the  statutes  of  Provisorsand  Praemunire 
were  passed,  and  Chancellor  when  Wyclif  was  called 
upon  to  argue  against  the  payment  of  tribute  to 
Rome. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  old  monk  should  have 
shown  scant  favour  to  the  friars ;  but  his  action  in 
regard  to  Canterbury  Hall  shows  that  at  any  rate  he 
had  not  ceased  to  believe  in  the  virtues  and  merits 
of  the  Benedictines.  He  has  been  described  as  a 
pugnacious  prelate.  A  well-known  reference  to  him 
by  Lord  Campbell,  in  his  Lives  of  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellors, is  worth  quoting  again,  if  only  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  perplexities  which  have  beset  everyone 
who  ventured  too  lightly  amongst  the  details  of 
Wyclif's  career.  Campbell  tells  us  that  "  among 
those  with  whom  (Langham)  quarrelled  at  Canter- 
bury was  the  famous  John  Wyclif,  then  a  student  at 
the  college  there  erected  by  Islip,  his  predecessor. 
The  ardent  youth  being  unjustly  expelled,  and  finding 
no  redress  for  the  wrong  he  suffered,  turned  his  mind 
to  Church  usurpations,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the 
Reformation  which  blessed  an  after  age." 

Langham  made  his  peace  with  Rome,  and  received 
the  cardinal's  hat  in  1368.  He  ought  to  have  known 
that  his  acceptance  of  this  honour  would  at  once 
make  him  a  suspect  with  the  English  Court,  if  not 
with  the  English  Church.     At  any  rate  it  lost  him 


1377]         Wyclif  and  the  National  Church,        149 

the  Primacy.  The  King  seized  his  temporalities, 
and  sent  a  congi  d'ttire  to  Canterbury,  with  a  recom- 
mendation to  elect  William  Whittlesey,  a  nephew  of 
Simon  Islip,  who  held  the  position  for  the  next  six 
years  without  making  much  of  a  mark  on  his  gen- 
eration. Of  Simon  Sudbury,  who  succeeded  hfm 
(1375-1381)  it  would  not  be  altogether  correct  to 
say  the  same  thing ;  but,  so  far  as  he  came  directly 
into  touch  with  Wyclif,  he  is  overshadowed  by  the 
stronger  personality  of  Courtenay.  It  will  suffice  to 
speak  of  his  primacy  hereafter,  in  connection  with 
the  proceedings  which  were  taken  against  Wyclif  on 
the  charge  of  heresy. 

William  Courtenay  was  the  fourth  son  of  Hugh 
Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devon,  who  had  married  Mar- 
garet Bohun,  granddaughter  of  Edward  I.  He  was 
thus  allied  in  blood  both  to  the  Prince  and  to  the 
Princess  of  Wales ;  and,  when  his  parents  destined 
their  boy  to  the  secular  priesthood,  no  doubt  they 
anticipated,  or  knew  that  they  could  guarantee,  his 
rapid  rise  to  the  highest  ecclesiastical  dignities. 
According  to  Dean  Hook,  in  his  Lives  of  the  Arch- 
bishops, Courtenay  was  actuated  more  by  partisan- 
ship than  by  principle.  At  all  events  he  was  before 
everything  the  political  prelate,  ambitious  and 
haughty,  a  natural  leader  of  men,  stepping  at 
once  to  the  front  rank  of  English  churchmen,  and 
claiming  to  be  recognised  as  a  champion  of  the 
national  Church.  At  the  age  of  twenty-five  (in 
1367)  he  was  made  Chancellor  of  the  University  of 
Oxford,  and  did  good  service  in  resisting  the  claim 
of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  to  appoint  to  that  office. 


150  John  Wyclif.  [1349- 

From  the  family  records  it  appears  that  he  was  one 
of  the  earlier  Knights  of  the  Garter. 

The  future  malleus  hcereticorum  was  already  at 
Oxford  the  hammer  of  recalcitrant  friars.  Before 
his  election  to  the  chancellorship  the  friars  had 
given  the  university  a  great  deal  of  trouble, 
claiming  to  be  outside  its  authority,  not  only  for 
themselves  but  even  for  the  students  whom  they 
sheltered  in  their  houses.  The  same  difficulty 
arose  at  Cambridge ;  and  both  the  friars  and  the 
universities  carried  their  quarrel  to  the  Archbishop 
and  to  the  King — to  the  former,  apparently,  before 
he  had  resigned  his  chancellorship  of  the  kingdom 
into  the  hands  of  Wykeham.  As  a  result  it  was 
ordered  in  the  King's  name  that  henceforth  no 
scholar  should  be  received  into  the  houses  of  any  of 
the  four  mendicant  Orders — Dominicans,  Francis- 
cans, Carmelites,  or  Augustinians — under  the  age  of 
eighteen ;  that  the  friars  should  not  produce  any 
new  bull  from  the  Pope,  or  take  advantage  of  any 
old  one,  in  their  controversies  with  the  universities ; 
and  that  any  future  difference  between  the  parties 
should  be  decided  in  the  King's  Court,  without 
further  appeal  to  Rome — which,  indeed,  would  be 
an  offence  against  the  statute  of  Praemunire. 

Wyclif  and  Courtenay  were  associated  in  this 
dispute  against  the  Orders,  which  left  rankling 
memories  in  the  minds  of  all  concerned.  It  was 
natural  that  Courtenay's  election  should  have  been 
stoutly  resisted  by  the  friars,  who  were  by  no  means 
prepared  to  obey  the  monition  which  had  been 
addressed  to  them.     They  even  went  so  far  as  to 


1377]       Wyclif  and  the  National  Church,        1 5 1 

cite  the  head  of  the  University  to  appear  before  the 
Pope ;  but  Wykeham  and  Langham  took  prompt 
action,  and  secured  the  quashing  of  the  citation. 

At  twenty-seven  Courtenay  became  Bishop  of 
Hereford,  a  bull  being  obtained  from  Rome  to  cover 
the  irregularity  in  point  of  age.  He  soon  made  his 
name  known  in  Convocation,  where  in  1373  he 
protested  vigorously  against  the  heavy  taxation  of 
the  Church  both  by  the  State  and  by  the  Pope. 
The  latter  had  made  a  levy  of  a  hundred  thousand 
florins  on  the  English  clergy,  and  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  double  burden  was  too  heavy 
to  be  borne.  Courtenay  stiffened  the  resolution 
of  his  colleagues  by  "  rising  in  anger  and  loudly 
declaring  that  neither  he  nor  any  of  the  clergy  in  his 
diocese  would  give  anything  until  the  King  found  a 
remedy  for  the  evils  from  which  the  Church  suffered." 
John  of  Gaunt  wanted  nothing  better  at  the  moment 
than  such  a  declaration ;  and  it  was  soon  after  this 
incident  that  the  mission  to  Avignon  was  despatched. 
Convocation  agreed  to  pay  one-tenth  to  the  King 
on  condition  that  "  the  intolerable  yoke  of  the  Pope" 
should  be  lifted  from  their  necks  ;  and  it  was  then 
that  Bishop  Gilbert  and  his  colleagues  were  nomi- 
nated. The  easement  of  the  Church  in  respect  of 
papal  exactions  must  in  fairness  be  set  off  against 
the  unsatisfactory  results  of  the  mission  and  subse- 
quent Conference  in  the  matter  of  reservations  and 
provisions. 

Courtenay's  consecration  as  bishop  had  coincided 
with  the  exclusion  of  ecclesiastics  from  the  higher  po- 
litical offices.     When  Sudbury  was  made  Archbishop 


152  John  Wyclif.  L1349- 

of  Canterbury  in  1375,  the  young  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford was  promoted  to  London,  and  in  the  following 
year  he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  committee 
of  Lords  who  were  associated  with  the  leaders  of  the 
Commons  during  the  term  of  the  Good  Parliament. 
From  this  time  forward  he  was  in  sharp  antagonism 
with  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  and  through  him 
(apart  from  any  question  of  orthodoxy)  with  John 
Wyclif. 

It  was  impossible  that  two  strongly  aggressive  na- 
tures like  those  of  Lancaster  and  Courtenay  should 
be  thrown  together  in  public  life  without  coming 
sooner  or  later  into  conflict  ;  and  their  quarrel  was 
doubtless  none  the  less  bitter  because  both  of  them 
had  Plantagenet  blood  in  their  veins.  In  his  political 
action  and  sympathies  Courtenay  was  probably,  to 
the  best  of  his  judgment,  patriotic  and  loyal  to  the 
core.  At  Oxford,  as  we  have  seen,  he  fought  splen- 
didly for  his  university,  and  with  special  gusto  against 
the  friars  who  owned  allegiance  to  Rome.  As  an 
ecclesiastic  he  fought  still  more  splendidly  for  the 
English  Church  against  the  two  tyrannies  (as  he  could 
not  but  think  them)  which  threatened  to  crush  out  her 
life.  No  cause  could  have  a  stronger,  a  more  deter- 
mined and  undaunted  champion ;  and  it  is  evident 
that  in  dignity  and  courtesy  he  can  well  bear  compari- 
son with  John  of  Gaunt  in  his  excitable  youth.  Two 
examples  of  his  force  of  character  recorded  by  his 
biographers — one  telling  as  much  against  him  as  the 
other  tells  to  his  credit — may  be  repeated  here  be- 
cause they  show  how  his  disagreement  with  the  Duke 
was  aggravated  at  a  critical  moment,  and   because 


13771         Wyclif  and  the  National  Church.        153 

they  are  not  without  a  bearing  on  the  subsequent 
events  of  Wyclif's  life. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1376,  Gregory  XL, 
who  had  a  quarrel  with  the  people  of  Florence,  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  bringing  them  to  their  senses  by 
excommunicating  all  Florentines  without  distinction 
wherever  they  might  be  found.  He  issued  a  bull  to 
this  effect,  and  declaring  those  against  whom  he  had 
launched  the  thunders  of  heaven  incapable  of  pos- 
sessing any  property.  Now  the  introduction  of  this 
bull  into  England  was  a  violation  of  recent  statutes, 
and  equally  illegal  was  the  conduct  of  Courtenay  in 
taking  it  to  Paul's  Cross  and  commending  it  to  the 
turbulent  citizens.  The  citizens  of  London  were 
already  inflamed  against  all  the  foreigners  in  Eng- 
land, whether  Italian  priests,  German  Esterlings, 
Dutch  weavers,  or  Florentine  merchants  and  money- 
lenders. They  wanted  no  stronger  inducement  than 
that  which  their  Bishop  had  given  them ;  they 
sacked  the  houses  of  the  Florentines,  and  in  the  riot 
which  ensued  they  were  not  very  careful  to  establish 
beforehand  the  nationality  of  their  victims.  The 
city  authorities — it  may  well  have  been  that  Richard 
Whittington  was  amongst  them — had  to  suppress 
the  riot ;  and  they  would  probably  be  in  sympathy 
with  the  Florentine  merchants,  as  the  Court  and  the 
royal  Council  undoubtedly  were. 

It  was  just  at  this  juncture  that  Lancaster  had 
recovered  his  influence  in  the  Council.  He  was 
supreme  for  the  moment,  and  he  let  the  Bishop  know 
it.  Courtenay  had  subjected  himself  to  the  penal- 
ties of  Praemunire  by  acting  on  the  Pope's  bull ;  but 


154  7°hn  Wyclif.  [1349- 

he  was  too  highly  placed  to  be  proceeded  against 
according  to  the  strict  letter  of  the  law.  He  was, 
however,  compelled  to  eat  his  words,  and  he  sent  a 
deputy  to  Paul's  Cross  to  announce  that  his  action 
in  the  matter  had  been  misunderstood. 

The  other  incident,  which  occurred  soon  after- 
wards, at  the  meeting  of  Convocation  in  Febru- 
ary, 1377,  presents  the  fiery  prelate  in  a  more 
amiable  light.  The  Crown  had  omitted  to  send  a 
writ  to  the  Bishop  of  Winchester.  Courtenay  pro- 
tested indignantly  against  the  treatment  of  Wykeham 
— who  had  served  the  King  long  and  faithfully  in 
many  capacities — and  induced  Convocation  to  refuse 
to  consider  the  demand  for  a  subsidy  until  the  Bishop 
should  receive  his  summons  and  take  his  seat.  It 
was  a  Roland  for  Lancaster's  Oliver.  The  Duke  was 
obliged  to  give  way,  and  Wykeham  was  re-instated. 
The  monk  of  St.  Alban's  already  quoted  says  that  the 
Bishop  secured  his  pardon  by  appealing  to  and  brib- 
ing Alice  Perrers.  But  the  monks  were  often  preju- 
diced against  ecclesiastics,  and  this  story  is  evidently 
superfluous,  if  not  incredible. 

Clearly,  then,  there  was  no  love  lost  between  the 
Duke  and  his  cousin. 

It  is  worthy  of  mention  that  Wyclif  himself  was 
in  some  measure  hostile  to  William  of  Wykeham,  if 
not  actually  in  accord  with  Lancaster  on  this  point. 
Speaking  in  one  of  his  sermons  against  the  meddling 
of  ecclesiastics  in  matters  of  State,  he  complained 
that  "  benefices,  instead  of  being  bestowed  on  poor 
clerks,  are  heaped  on  a  kitchen  clerk,  or  one  wise  in 
building    castles,    or   in    worldly    business."     Now 


1377]        Wyclif  and  the  National  Church.       155 

Wykeham,  before  he  received  his  mitre,  had  been 
surveyor  of  works  and  architect  at  Windsor,  and 
secretary  to  the  King,  in  addition  to  holding  sundry 
pieces  of  preferment  in  the  Church.  Wyclif,  as  a 
declared  enemy  to  pluralists,  and  to  ecclesiastics  who 
grew  wealthy  by  dividing  the  trust-funds  of  the 
Church,  would  have  been  inconsistent  if  he  had  not 
blamed  Wykeham  amongst  the  rest — or  amongst  the 
very  first.  But  there  is  no  other -evidence  of  serious 
or  personal  animosity  between  these  two  men,  whom 
their  countrymen  for  ample  reasons  have  so  long 
agreed  to  honour. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  one  kind  of  honour  for 
churchmen  who  refuse  their  share  in  the  trust-funds, 
preferring  a  life  of  apostolic  poverty  in  order  that 
they  may  preach  the  gospel  by  example  as  well  as 
by  precept,  and  another  kind  of  honour  for  such  as 
take  what  comes  to  them,  perhaps  restoring  the  bulk 
of  it  in  their  own  time  and  manner.  Wykeham  was 
a  magnificent  founder  and  benefactor,  to  whom 
students  of  all  succeeding  ages  have  been  largely 
indebted.  Yet  Stow,  on  the  authority  of  Walsingham, 
says  that  in  1365,  when  he  was  made  Archdeacon 
of  Lincoln  and  Keeper  of  the  Seal,  Wykeham  was 
already  Provost  of  Wells,  incumbent  of  a  benefice  in 
Devonshire,  and  the  holder  of  no  fewer  than  twelve 
prebends.  In  the  same  year,  on  the  death  of  Bishop 
Edington  of  Winchester,  he  was  made  "  general 
administrator  of  spiritual  and  temporal  things  per- 
taining to  the  bishopric."  The  Duke  of  Bourbon 
was  at  that  time  a  prisoner  in  English  hands ;  and, 
as  the    Pope   was   more    easily   approachable    from 


156  John  Wyclif.  [1377 

France  than  from  England,  King  Edward  was 
induced  to  agree  to  an  arrangement  whereby  the 
Duke  went  to  Avignon,  secured  the  nomination  of 
Wykeham  for  Winchester,  and  so  "  earned  his 
deliverance."  By  this  transaction  the  King  netted 
twenty  thousand  francs,  and  the  pluralist  became  a 
bishop. 

The  story  may  have  reached  us  in  a  distorted 
shape,  and  it  must  be  accepted  for  what  it  may  be 
worth.  But  Wyclif  knew  what  he  was  talking  about 
when  he  spoke  of  the  heaping  of  benefices  on  rich 
men,  whilst  the  poor  clerks  starved — or  stole.  And 
it  may  be  mentioned,  by  the  way,  that  Courtenay 
himself  was  a  confirmed  pluralist. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


PERSECUTION. 


ROM  Courtenay,  it  is  evident, 
Wyclif  would  have  little  to 
expect  save  a  stern  and  un- 
compromising opposition.  The 
young  aristocrat  from  the  West 
of  England,  ever  conscious  of 
the  royal  blood  in  his  veins, 
the  haughty  prelate  whose 
proud  bearing  and  intellectual 
vigour  overawed  bishops  old  enough  to  be  his 
father,  found  little  in  common  with  the  simple 
gentleman's  son  from  the  North.  Courtenay  has 
been  described  as  a  patriotic  and  anti-papal  English- 
man, and  so  no  doubt  in  a  sense  he  was.  But  his 
qualified  hostility  to  the  papal  assumptions  is  not 
to  be  compared  with  the  vehement  antagonism  of 
Wyclif  in  his  later  years.  Courtenay,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  ready  enough  to  accept  the  mandate  of  Rome 

i57 


158  John  Wyclif.  H376- 

where  it  did  not  imply  the  humiliation  or  impoverish- 
ment of  the  English  Church.  Wyclif  would  make 
no  terms  with  the  Papacy,  which  for  him  was  (at  its 
worst)  antichrist  and  anathema.  Both  were  staunch 
to  a  lofty  ideal  of  the  national  Church  of  England  ; 
but  they  differed  enormously  in  the  model  which 
they  set  up — differed  by  a  space  as  wide  as  that 
which  separates  the  barefooted  apostle  from  the 
purple-clad  prince  of  a  dominant  church. 

Express  complaints  against  Wyclifs  teaching  had 
reached  the  bishops,  as  well  as  the  Papal  Court  at 
Avignon,  soon  after  the  Conference  of  Bruges.  Of 
course  it  is  not  meant  to  imply  that  the  bold  doctrines 
of  the  Oxford  Schoolman  and  lecturer  in  divinity 
were  generally  held  to  be  sound  up  to  1376,  and 
were  recognised  as  heretical  afterwards.  His  accusers 
were  ready  enough  at  the  last-named  date  with  a 
score  of  faulty  instances,  gleaned  from  his  writings, 
sermons,  and  university  lectures  during  the  preceding 
years.  No  one  becomes  suddenly  or  accidentally  a 
heretic ;  and  the  Oxford  friars,  who  certainly  hated 
Wyclif  since  1366,  if  not  earlier,  had  been  taking 
notes  of  his  teaching  in  anticipation  of  a  day  when 
they  might  find  an  orthodox  corrector  of  his  heresies. 
And  they  found  such  a  corrector  in  the  Chancellor 
whom  they  had  attempted  to  hale  to  Rome,  and 
whose  authority  they  had  defied. 

Wyclifs  heterodoxy,  we  cannot  doubt,  was  an  old 
affair — perhaps  as  old  as  his  first  association  with 
John  of  Gaunt.  But  the  actual  persecution  of  "  the 
Evangelical  Doctor  "  began  after  the  papal  nuncios  at 
Bruges  had  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing  his  incisive 


1377]  Persecution.  159 

arguments,  after  the  friars  had  found  a  willing  listener 
in  Courtenay,  and  after  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  had 
begun  to  stumble  in  his  ambitious  course.  When 
the  Reformer  may  be  said  in  fighting  phrase  to  have 
thrown  away  his  scabbard,  or  at  what  particular 
moment  the  Pope  and  the  Sacred  College  determined 
to  crush  their  formidable  enemy,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  say. 

The  bulls  which  arrived  in  England  in  November, 
1377,  demanding  that  proceedings  should  be  taken 
against  Wyclif,  were  dated  May  22d  of  the  same  year. 
The  charges  on  which  they  were  ostensibly  based 
had  reached  Avignon  from  England  before  the  close 
of  1376.  It  is  in  every  way  probable  that  this  first 
open  breach  between  Wyclif  and  the  authorities  of 
the  Church  was  brought  about  by  the  initiative  of 
the  friars  before  June,  1376,  whilst  John  of  Gaunt 
was  not  a  member  of  the  King's  Council.  The  tem- 
porary eclipse  of  the  powerful  Duke  would  naturally 
seem  to  afford  a  good  opportunity  for  moving  against 
the  heretic  whom  he  had  protected.  The  death  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  renewal  of  his  brother's 
influence,  would  be  quite  enough  to  make  the  astute 
Pope  withhold  his  bulls  for  a  time.  It  was  clearly 
hopeless  to  move  against  a  friend  of  the  Duke's  and 
to  hazard  a  new  decretal  amongst  these  wrong- 
headed  and  contemptuous  English,  at  a  crisis  when 
holy  bishops  like  Wykeham  and  Courtenay  were 
stripped  of  their  honours  and  goods,  or  made  to  eat 
their  words  in  public  for  the  very  offence  of  pub- 
lishing a  papal  bull. 

Before  long  the  Pope  would  hear  of  the  famous 


160  John  Wyclif.  [1376- 

Convocation  in  1377.  He  would  learn  how  that 
splendid  champion  of  the  Church,  William  Courte- 
nay,  rising  in  dignity  amongst  his  peers,  and  even 
rebuking  the  weaker  Primate  to  his  face,  had  made 
a  scathing  speech  against  the  formidable  Duke,  and 
had  refused  in  the  name  of  the  Church  to  grant  a 
single  penny  for  the  King's  necessities  until  the 
wrongs  of  the  disgraced  Wykeham  should  be  re- 
dressed. Here  evidently  was  a  man  who  dared  to 
withstand  the  outrageous  John  of  Gaunt  ;  and  the 
same  month  of  February  was  not  to  pass  away  with- 
out giving  Gregory  another  proof  that  the  tide  was 
beginning  to  turn  in  England,  and  that  the  star  of 
Courtenay  was  in  the  ascendant.  The  Pope  had 
himself  been  Archdeacon  of  Canterbury,  and  may 
have  known  something  of  English  feeling — though 
the  facts  do  not  go  far  to  warrant  such  a  conclusion. 
It  is  necessary  to  keep  the  order  of  events  precisely 
fixed  in  our  minds,  for  confusion  has  arisen  amongst 
some  of  the  earlier  biographers  of  Wyclif  in  respect 
of  the  proceedings  taken  against  him  by  Courtenay. 
Wyclif  was  cited  by  Courtenay  to  appear  before  him 
at  St.  Paul's — or  perhaps  before  Convocation — in 
February,  1377,  at  the  time  when  the  annual  parlia- 
ment of  the  clergy  was  assembled  in  London. 
Clearly  this  had  nothing  to  do  with  Gregory's  bulls, 
which  were  not  signed  until  the  following  May.  The 
citation  need  not  have  been  issued  many  days  before 
it  was  returnable,  on  the  19th  of  February,  but  it 
may  well  have  been  conceived  and  prepared  weeks 
or  months  before.  It  was  Courtenay's  act,  and  ap- 
parently Courtenay's  alone ;  for  the  citation  was  to 


2  » 

I  * 

CO    & 

2g 


o  < 


[1377  Persecution,  1 6 1 

the  Lady  Chapel  of  old  St.  Paul's,  and  he  presided 
in  person  over  the  inquiry.  Is  it  possible  to  disso- 
ciate it  from  the  bold  act  which  procured  Wykeham's 
restoration  ?  Must  we  not  take  the  two  acts  together 
as  Courtenay's  retort  for  his  treatment  after  the 
Florentine  riot — or  at  any  rate  as  a  challenge  to  John 
of  Gaunt  on  behalf  of  the  rulers  of  the  Church  ? 

It  is  probable  enough  that  Wyclif's  militant  spirit 
led  him  to  anticipate  with  a  certain  keen  satisfaction 
the  opportunity  of  fighting  out  so  noble  a  cause 
with  an  antagonist  so  worthy  of  his  steel.  He  could 
not  foresee  that  his  own  friends  would  make  any- 
thing like  a  connected  argument  impossible,  even  if 
his  enemies  had  been  willing  to  hear  him. 

But  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  seems  to  have  made 
up  his  mind  beforehand  that  Courtenay  was  acting 
in  excess  of  his  jurisdiction — and  it  is  certainly  not 
quite  clear  what  the  jurisdiction  was.  Courtenay 
was  not  Wyclif's  diocesan  ;  but  the  latter  had 
preached  for  many  years  in  the  diocese  of  London, 
and  the  Bishop's  authority  was  doubtless  sufficient 
to  prevent  him  from  doing  so  again,  if  on  inquiry  he 
found  that  the  King's  chaplain  was  in  the  habit  of 
preaching  rank  heresy.  For  anything  beyond  this 
it  would  seem  that  Courtenay  would  need  authori- 
sation from  the  Pope  or  the  Archbishop.  There  is 
no  evidence  of  a  bull  up  to  this  point,  and  it  is 
extremely  improbable  that  the  proceedings  were 
taken  on  the  authority  of  Sudbury,  who  was  not 
heroic  enough  in  his  mood  to  break  with  and  defy 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster.  We  can  only  suppose  that 
Courtenay's  position  in  the  matter  was  a  weak  one, 


1 62  John  Wyclif.  [1376- 

and  that  the  Duke  felt  himself  safe  in  overbearing 
him  with  a  manifestation  of  physical  force.  He 
would  naturally  have  no  confidence  in  the  fairness 
of  the  tribunal  which  Courtenay  had  set  up,  appar- 
ently for  the  sole  purpose  of  silencing  his  clerical 
ally.  And  what  would  the  people  say,  his  friends 
as  well  as  his  enemies,  if  he  suffered  this  priest  to 
get  the  better  of  him  after  such  a  palpable  defiance  ? 
Thus,  when  the  Reformer  put  in  an  appear- 
ance at  St.  Paul's  on  the  19th  of  February,,  he 
was  accompanied  by  John  of  Gaunt  and  by  a 
posse  of  armed  men  under  Lord  Percy  of  Aln- 
wick, afterwards  first  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
who  had  recently  been  appointed  Marshal  of 
England.  Lancaster  also  brought  with  him,  accord- 
ing to  one  account,  four  mendicant  friars,  perhaps  by 
way  of  a  moral  counterpoise  to  the  friars  who  had 
notoriously  been  egging  on  the  Bishop  and  the  Pope 
to  take  action  against  the  English  Doctor.  The 
arrival  of  this  party  in  the  crowded  cathedral  created 
a  great  disturbance,  and  Courtenay  came  forward 
and  reproved  them,  saying  grimly  that  if  he  had 
known  they  would  behave  in  that  fashion  he  would 
have  taken  care  that  the  Marshal  and  his  men  should 
not  have  entered.  The  Duke  was  quite  ready  for 
his  cousin,  and  declared  that  he  would  exercise  his 
authority  there  whether  the  Bishop  liked  it  or  no. 
Then  they  entered  the  Lady  Chapel,  and  found, 
according  to  the  account  in  the  Chronicon  Anglice, 
not  only  bishops  but  also  a  number  of  barons.  It  is 
possible  that  all  except  Courtenay  were  assembled 
as  mere  spectators  of  what  promised  to  be  an  inter- 


INTERIOR  OF  OLD  ST.  PAUL'S,   LOOKING  EAST. 

DUGDALE. 


13771  Persecution.  163 

esting  and  exciting  case.  The  barons  are  mentioned 
in  association  with  the  Duke,  and  they  may  have 
come  in  Lancaster's  train  from  Westminster. 

Before  the  inquiry  could  be  opened  Lord  Percy 
did  what  he  may  have  considered  humane  and 
natural  under  the  circumstances.  Wyclif  was  very 
properly  standing,  out  of  respect  for  his  ecclesias- 
tical superiors,  and  Percy  bade  hirn  take  a  seat.  "  As 
he  will  have  many  things  to  answer,"  said  the 
Marshal,  "  he  should  have  a  more  comfortable  seat." 
But  the  Bishop  flatly  said  that  he  should  not  sit 
there  at  all.  "  It  is  against  reason  and  against  the 
practice  of  courts,"  he  said,  "  that  he  should 
sit,  for  he  has  come  on  a  summons,  to  answer 
for  himself  before  his  ordinary,  and  in  respect  of 
charges  which  have  been  brought  against  him.  For 
the  time  of  his  answer,  and  so  long  as  his  case  is 
being  tried,  it  is  right  that  he  should  stand  where 
he  is." 

Thus  at  the  outset  a  dispute  arose  between  Percy 
and  the  Bishop,  with  many  hard  words  on  both  sides, 
and  the  whole  assembly  was  thrown  into  confusion. 
The  Duke  then  began  to  argue  with  the  Bishop,  and 
Courtenay  did  his  best  to  let  John  of  Gaunt  have  tit 
for  tat.  Lancaster,  says  the  chronicler,  was  ashamed 
of  himself  because  he  could  not  talk  the  Bishop 
down  ;  so  he  began  to  threaten,  and  swore  that  he 
would  humble  not  his  pride  only  but  that  of  all  the 
bishops  in  England. 

"  You  trust  too  much  in  your  father  and  mother," 
he  said,  "  but  they  will  not  be  able  to  help  you. 
They  will  have  enough  to  do  to  look  after  themselves." 


164  John  Wyclif.  [1376- 

"  I  do  not  rely  on  my  parents,"  said  Courtenay, 
"  any  more  than  on  yourself,  or  on  any  mortal 
man,  but  I  rely  on  my  God,  who  deserts  none  that 
put  their  trust  in  him." 

"  I  would  rather  take  him  by  the  hair,"  the  Duke 
said  in  an  audible  aside,  "  and  drag  him  out  of  the 
church,  than  put  up  with  such  talk  from  him." 

The  bystanders  were  enraged  to  hear  the  Bishop 
insulted  in  his  own  cathedral.  They  not  only  broke 
into  the  wordy  contest,  but  apparently  made  it  plain 
that  they  were  ready  to  pass  from  words  to  deeds. 
We  are  not  told  whether  the  city  guard  were  present, 
inside  or  outside  the  cathedral ;  but  it  is  quite  possi- 
ble that  they  were,  and  that  both  the  King's  son  and 
the  Marshal  were  a  little  overawed  by  the  strength 
arrayed  against  them.  At  any  rate  the  wrangle  was 
so  fierce  that  Courtenay  found  it  necessary  to  dis- 
miss the  assembly  ;  and  thus  the  "  lying  glutton," 
as  the  St.  Alban's  monk  piously  calls  Wyclif — 
"  Doctor  Wicked-believe  "  was  another  and  a  more 
ingenious  name  for  him — escaped  censure  for  the 
time. 

That  day  and  the  day  which  succeeded  it  were 
momentous  in  the  records  of  the  city  of  London,  as 
well  as  in  the  lives  of  Wyclif,  Lancaster,  and  Courte- 
nay. Parliament  had  met  at  Westminster  in  the 
afternoon,  an  hour  or  two  before  the  assembly  at 
St.  Paul's,  with  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  presiding. 
Thomas  of  Woodstock,  afterwards  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter, the  King's  fifth  son,  was  present,  with  Lord 
Percy  and  the  friends  of  the  princes.  Apparently 
there  had  been  a  rally  of  King's  friends,  by  way 


LJ 


Q.      . 

o 
co   2 


1377]  Persecution.  165 

of  outflanking  the  Bishop  and  the  Corporation  of 
London.  A  string  of  requests  or  "  petitions  "  was 
made  in  the  King's  name,  amongst  which  the  most  im- 
portant were  that  the  city  guard  should  in  future  be  in 
command  of  a  captain  instead  of  a  mayor  ("  major  "), 
and  that  the  Marshal  of  England  should  have  power 
to  arrest  within  the  walls  as  he  had  outside — the 
object  being  to  deprive  the  Londoners  of  some  of 
their  privileges,  and  to  clip  their  growing  wings. 
But  it  happened  that  one  of  the  most  honourable 
citizens,  John  Philipot,  recently  appointed  a  parlia- 
mentary treasurer  and  auditor-general,  in  association 
with  Walworth,  was  in  the  House,  and  he  entered  a 
vigorous  protest  against  the  action  of  the  Court 
party.  He  spoke  with  so  much  force  that  the  meet- 
ing is  said  to  have  broken  up  in  confusion — probably 
not  before  the  majority  had  agreed  to  all  the  propo- 
sitions. Woodstock  and  Percy  maintained  that  this 
had  been  done,  and  the  Marshal  seems  to  have  lost 
no  time  in  exercising  his  new  authority. 

Next  day  there  was  a  hastily  summoned  meeting 
of  the  City  Council,  with  the  aldermen  and  possibly 
the  mayor  in  attendance,  which  discussed  the  attack 
made  upon  their  privileges,  and  considered  how  it 
might  be  repelled.  Whilst  they  were  debating, 
two  citizens  of  superior  rank,  Lords  Fitzwalter  and 
Guy  de  Brian,  made  their  way  into  the  meeting. 
They  were  allowed  to  remain  on  condition  that  they 
took  an  oath  of  loyalty  to  the  Corporation,  which 
they  willingly  did  ;  and  then  Fitzwalter  made  an 
inflammatory  speech,  informing  the  Council  that  the 
Marshal  had  already  arrested  and  imprisoned  one  of 


1 66  John  Wyclif.  [1376- 

their  fellow-citizens.  The  Londoners  had  been  at 
white  heat  since  the  previous  afternoon,  and  now 
they  could  be  restrained  no  longer.  They  rushed 
out,  armed  or  unarmed,  and,  gathering  volume  as 
they  went,  made  straight  for  Lord  Percy's.  The 
Marshal  had  fled,  but  the  crowd  released  the  prisoner 
and  sacked  the  house.  From  thence  they  marched 
upon  the  Savoy;  and  Lancaster's  palace,  rich  with 
the  spoils  of  France  and  Castile,  had  a  very  narrow 
escape. 

Percy  had  fled  to  the  Duke,  and  the  two  together 
were  said  to  have  crossed  the  river  and  appealed  to 
the  Princess  of  Wales  at  her  palace  in  Kennington. 
There  are  two  or  three  versions  of  the  manner  in 
which  Lancaster  escaped  the  vengeance  of  the  mob  ; 
but  it  is  clear  that  the  Princess  befriended  him  at 
this  crisis,  and  made  terms  between  him  and  the 
enraged  citizens.  The  latter  are  reported  to  have  de- 
manded a  fair  trial  for  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  and 
Peter  de  la  Mare.  Probably  it  was  only  the  leaders 
of  the  mob  who  made  these  stipulations,  and  not  the 
city  authorities. 

We  know  more  than  enough  of  the  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster to  account  for  the  bitterness  displayed  against 
him  at  this  period  of  his  life.  The  disasters  with 
which  the  decade  had  begun,  the  not  very  honour- 
able peace  concluded  with  France  and  Castile  at 
Bruges,  his  repeated  attacks  on  the  bishops  and  on 
the  city,  his  close  relations  with  the  most  corrupt 
persons  about  the  Court,  his  apparent  rivalry  with 
the  popular  Prince  of  Wales,  his  opposition  to  the 
Good   Parliament,  his  unscrupulous  packing  of  the 


MONUMENT  OF  JOHN,   DUKE  OF    LANCASTER,  AND  OF   HIS  WIFE  CONSTANCE, 
IN  OLD  ST.  PAUL'S. 

DUGDALE. 


1377J  Persecution,  167 

Parliament  of  1377,  have  been  mentioned  already. 
He  had  made  so  many  enemies  by  this  time  that  the 
more  ignorant  as  well  as  the  more  unscrupulous 
amongst  them  either  believed  or  pretended  to  believe 
that  he  had  profited  by  the  embezzlements  of  men 
like  Lyons,  and  that,  instead  of  being  a  legitimate 
prince,  he  had  been  palmed  upon  Edward  III.  by 
Queen  Philippa.  It  is  not  surprising  that,  when  his 
eldest  brother  died,  he  should  have  been  thought 
capable  of  harbouring  a  design  to  get  rid  of  his 
nephew  Richard,  and  to  secure  the  throne  for  him- 
self. The  insult  to  Courtenay  would  scarcely  have 
moved  the  citizens  so  deeply  if  their  prejudice  had 
not  already  been  raised  by  such  facts  and  suspicions 
as  these. 

Walter  Savage  Landor,  with  the  insight  of  genius, 
has  imagined  a  conversation,  occurring  on  the  day  of 
the  riot,  between  John  of  Gaunt  and  Joanna  of  Kent, 
his  cousin  in  blood,  and  the  widowed  mother  of 
Richard.  He  represents  the  Princess  of  Wales  as 
coming  to  rescue  him  in  the  Savoy  palace,  and 
standing  with  him  at  a  window,  looking  down  on  the 
surging  mob  beneath.  "  How  is  this,  my  cousin," 
she  says,  "  that  you  are  besieged  in  your  own  house, 
by  the  citizens  of  London  ?  I  thought  you  were 
their  idol."  To  which  he  answers  :  "  If  their  idol, 
madam,  I  am  one  which  they  may  tread  on  as  they 
list  when  down  ;  but  which,  by  my  soul  and  knight- 
hood !  the  ten  best  battle-axes  among  them  shall 
find  it  hard  work  to  unshrine."  He  suspects  that 
she  has  come  with  her  guard  to  arrest  him ;  but  they 
are   reconciled  by  a  reference  to  the  dead  Prince, 


1 68  John  Wycltf.  [1376- 

and  Joanna  says  to  him  :  "  Cousin,  you  loved  your 
brother.  Love,  then,  what  was  dearer  to  him  than 
his  life:  protect  what  he,  valiant  as  you  have  seen 
him,  cannot !  The  father,  who  foiled  so  many,  hath 
left  no  enemies ;  the  innocent  child,  who  can  injure 
no  one,  finds  them  !  "  She  speaks  to  the  angry  citi- 
zens and  deftly  turns  their  anger.  "  Let  none  ever 
tell  me  again  he  is  the  enemy  of  my  son  .  .  .  your 
darling  child,  Richard.  Are  your  fears  more  lively 
than  a  poor  weak  female's  ?  than  a  mother's  ?  yours, 
whom  he  hath  so  often  led  to  victory,  and  praised  to 
his  father,  naming  each — he,  John  of  Gaunt,  the  de- 
fender of  the  helpless,  the  comforter  of  the  desolate, 
the  rallying  signal  of  the  desperately  brave  !  "  She 
stands  surety  for  his  loyalty  and  allegiance,  and  the 
fickle  mob  cheer  the  Duke  as  well  as  herself. 

The  scene  is  imaginary ;  but  it  is  an  imagination 
which  will  scarcely  lead  us  far  astray.  John  of 
Gaunt  had  very  possibly  brought  more  odium  upon 
himself  than  his  acts  deserved.  He  was  faithful  to 
his  sister-in-law  and  loyal  to  his  nephew,  whom,  if  he 
had  lived  but  a  few  months  longer,  he  would  have 
succeeded  on  the  throne. 

Reasons  have  been  assigned  for  thinking  that  the 
abortive  failure  of  the  St.  Paul's  inquiry,  and  the 
evidence  which  it  gave  of  Courtenay's  ability  to  hold 
his  own,  were  amongst  the  motives  which  led  the 
Pope  to  take  action  against  Wyclif  in  the  spring  of 
1377.  But,  between  the  signing  of  the  bulls  and 
their  formal  delivery  in  England,  Edward  III.  had 
brought  his  glorious  reign  to  its  shameful  end ; 
and  the  appeal  which  Gregory  had   framed  for  the 


1377]  Persecution.  169 

veteran  King  had  to  be  re-directed  to  his  grandson. 
Gregory  himself  did  not  live  long  enough  to  see  the 
issue  of  his  attack  on  the  strongest  living  enemy  of 
Rome ;  but  he  must  have  died  in  full  confidence 
that  the  thunders  of  the  Church  would  eventually 
strike  down  this  impious  English  heretic. 

Richard  II.  came  to  the  throne  on  June  21st. 
His  first  Council  included  Courtenay,  with  the 
Bishops  of  Carlisle  and  Salisbury,  the  Earl  of  March, 
Lord  Stafford,  Sir  John  Stafford,  Sir  Henry  Scrope, 
Sir  John  Devereux,  and  Sir  Hugh  Segrave.  It  was 
a  "  clerical  "  ministry,  independent  of,  if  not  opposed 
to,  John  of  Gaunt — though  Walsingham  says  that 
it  was  selected  with  his  "  connivance."  Courtenay 
does  not  appear  to  have  taken  any  active  part  in  the 
government  of  the  country.  Indeed  we  find  him 
flatly  declining  to  obey  the  Council,  having  fallen 
into  another  desperate  quarrel  with  Lancaster,  and 
publicly  excommunicated  his  friends  and  instru- 
ments for  a  gross  violation  of  sanctuary — to  which 
Wyclif  himself  refers  as  "  a  horrible  crime."  His 
refusal  to  abstain  from  the  repeated  publication  of 
the  sentence,  when  called  upon  to  do  so  by  the 
Council,  was  the  best  thing  which  he  could  possibly 
have  -done  for  the  Duke.  From  that  time  forward 
Lancaster  seems  to  have  steadily  regained  his  influ- 
ence ;  and  he  gradually  assumed  the  lead  of  the  new 
Court  party. 

The  first  Parliament  of  this  reign  met  at  Glouces- 
ter on  October  13th,  and  one  of  its  earliest  duties 
was  to  consider  whether  payment  of  Peter's  pence 
should    continue  to   be    made  to   the   Pope.      The 


170  John  Wyclif.  [1376- 

question  was  referred  to  Wyclif,  as  a  similar  question 
had  been  referred  to  him  eleven  years  before ;  and 
the  answer  which  he  gave  was  perhaps  more  signifi- 
cant than  some  of  his  biographers  have  led  us  to 
suppose.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  King's  chaplain 
gave  two  answers  in  the  same  treatise — first,  the 
answer  of  a  logical  and  independent  mind,  and  then 
the  answer  of  prudence  and  expediency.  He  was 
asked  "  whether  the  realm  of  England  may  legiti- 
mately, under  urgent  necessity  of  self-defence,  pre- 
vent the  resources  of  the  kingdom  from  being 
carried  away  to  foreigners,  even  though  the  Pope 
demand  it  under  pain  of  censure,  and  by  a  strict 
appeal  to  our  obedience." 

Wyclif  begins  by  declaring  that  he  must  leave  it 
to  trained  lawyers  to  say  what  should  be  done  ac- 
cording to  the  canon  law,  the  law  of  England,  and 
the  civil  law,  and  undertakes  to  argue  the  matter 
out  according  to  the  law  of  Christ.  The  realm,  he 
says,  is  quite  entitled  to  keep  its  property,  first  as  a 
mode  of  self-preservation,  and  next  because  the  pay- 
ments to  Rome  originated  as  alms  and  charity,  and 
they  are  no  longer  required  as  such,  whereas  the 
Bible  and  the  Fathers  teach  us  that  charity  begins  at 
home.  Again  we  are  bound  by  the  law  of  conscience 
— and  especially  the  rulers  of  the  country  are  so  bound 
— to  think  of  our  own  country  first,  and  not  to  im- 
poverish it.  In  regard  to  Peter's  pence  especially, 
pious  founders  left  their  benefactions  for  the  Church 
of  England  alone,  that  the  clergy  might  live  thereby, 
and  give  the  rest  in  alms.  Before  allowing  any  of  this 
wealth  to  leave  the  country,  our  rulers  should  take 


13771  Persecution.  1 7 1 

immediate  steps  to  check  the  abuse,  moved  thereto 
by  thinking  of  the  souls  of  the  departed,  of  their  own 
responsibility,  and  of  the  safety  of  the  realm.  All 
the  world  would  laugh  at  our  "  asinine  folly  "  if  we 
who  dared  to  invade  other  countries  for  secular  causes 
were  afraid  of  holding  back  trust-funds  in  the  name 
of  God  from  unworthy  claimants.  The  laws  of  nature, 
of  Scripture,  of  conscience,  bid  us  boldly  say  No  to 
the  Pope. 

What  then  (Wyclif  goes  on  to  consider)  would  the 
Pope  do  if  we  refused  this  money  ?  Assume  that  he 
would  excommunicate  the  whole  realm,  put  us  under 
an  interdict,  declare  our  goods  forfeit,  as  he  did  to 
the  Florentines,  raise  a  crusade  against  us,  stamp  us 
with  the  mark  of  schismatics,  as  Rome  has  done  for 
the  Greeks.  But  only  an  unworthy  affection  could  be 
disturbed  by  the  withdrawal  of  such  charity  as  this. 
The  Holy  Father,  seeing  on  one  side  how  the  Turk 
grows  stronger  and  stronger  in  Europe  (for  reasons 
best  known  to  God),  and  seeing  on  the  other  that  the 
realm  of  England  is  conspicuous  for  its  piety,  would 
not  create  so  grave  a  scandal  through  mere  greed 
of  temporalities.  And  even  if  some  disciple  of  Anti- 
christ should  break  out  into  such  madness,  it  is  a 
consolation  to  think  that  censures  of  this  kind  are 
not  binding  in  the  sight  of  God.  The  limit  of  what 
Christians  should  give  to  the  Pope  is  what  his  office 
demands  ;  but  people  have  been  taught  to  confound 
the  office  with  the  pomp  surrounding  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  argued  that  if  we 
kept  this  money  in  England,  it  would  be  a  cause  of 
wantonness,  lubricity,  and  avarice.     If  so,  then  let 


172  John  Wyclif.  1376- 

us  reduce  the  gifts  of  our  benefactors  to  their  former 
modest  level,  and  devote  the  overplus  to  restore  the 
true  peace  of  the  Church.  Another  danger  would 
exist  in  the  lack  of  perseverance  which  distinguishes 
Englishmen.  (Impossible  not  to  see  in  this  phrase 
a  touch  of  the  disillusion  which  politics  had  already 
produced  in  Wyclif's  mind  !)  "  So  far  as  this  danger 
is  concerned,  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  to  strengthen 
the  whole  nation  in  unanimous  firmness,  before  the 
thing  can  be  attempted.  .  .  .  I  do  not  see  how 
we  could  attempt  to  do  this,  unless  the  common  con- 
sent of  the  whole  people  were  obtained  for  it.  .  .  . 
It  would  be  rash  for  a  private  individual  to  give 
this  advice,  since  a  matter  of  such  a  kind  ought  to 
proceed  from  the  agreement  of  the  realm  as  a  whole. 
.  .  .  It  would  behove  us  therefore  to  use  great 
forethought,  and  to  have  a  unanimous  Parliament, 
before  the  nation  begins  to  carry  such  a  work  into 
effect,  lest  personal  influence  or  private  advantage 
should  cause  an  injury  hereafter  to  the  common  weal 
of  the  country." 

The  drift  of  this  treatise  is  sufficiently  evident. 
Wyclif  answered  the  question  as  to  the  legitimacy 
of  refusing  Peter's  pence  with  an  unqualified  affirm- 
ative. It  is  not  only  our  right  and  our  interest  to 
do  it,  but  it  is  our  duty.  Yet  he  who  has  a  duty  to 
perform  may  be  at  liberty  to  select  the  time  for  per- 
forming it.  "  I  advise  you  to  wait  until  you  are 
stronger  and  more  unanimous.  By  suddenly  refus- 
ing all  pecuniary  aids  to  the  Pope,  you  would  risk 
not  only  disaster  abroad,  but  even  civil  war  at  home. 
I   dare  not   take   upon   myself  the  responsibility  of 


1377]  Persecution.  1 73 

counselling  you  to  stop  the  payment  of  Peter's 
pence." 

Two  things  will  probably  occur  to  a  sympa- 
thetic reader  in  connection  with  this  interesting 
State  document,  written,  as  we  know  that  it 
was,  when  the  substance  of  the  Pope's  bulls 
had  already  come  to  Wyclif's  ears,  or  at  least 
the  knowledge  that  such  bulls. had  been  framed 
and  despatched  against  him.  One  thing  is  that  the 
writer  could  not  have  been  a  fanatic,  and  was  far 
from  losing  his  head  through  hatred  of  Rome,  since, 
when  he  had  the  power  of  egging  on  the  Commons 
and  the  barons  to  strike  a  telling  blow  at  the  Papacy, 
he  forbore  to  do  so  from  motives  of  wise  calculation 
and  prudence.  And  another  thing  which  strikes  us 
is  that  this  calculation  and  this  prudence  were  by  no 
means  based  on  selfish  considerations,  suggested  by 
the  aforementioned  bulls,  for  never  had  Wyclif 
spoken  or  written  in  a  more  uncompromising  spirit 
of  the  claims  of  Rome,  the  independence  of  England, 
and  the  freedom  of  the  individual  conscience.  The 
paper  was  addressed  to  the  King  and  the  great 
Council.  It  would  very  probably  be  read  aloud  to 
both  Houses,  and  certainly  the  bishops  would  be 
made  acquainted  with  its  contents,  so  that  if  the 
Reformer's  object  had  been  to  strike  a  bargain,  and 
to  palter  with  his  convictions,  he  could  not  have 
done  it  in  a  more  unfortunate  manner. 

The  Parliament  which  received  and  acted  upon 
this  remarkable  compound  of  anti-papal  stricture 
and  patriotic  prudence  was  of  course  not  the  same 
as  that  which  had  met  early  in  the  year,  in  which 


174  John  Wyclif.  [1377 

the  Commons  had  been  packed  by  John  of  Gaunt, 
and  which  had  discharged  its  functions  by  the  first 
week  of  March.  The  demise  of  the  Crown  had  been 
followed  by  the  issue  of  new  writs,  and  the  new 
members  would  doubtless  be  thoroughly  loyal,  well- 
disposed  to  the  Princess  of  Wales,  and  in  perfect 
accord  with  the  King's  Council.  It  is  probable  that 
the  elections  had  been  free  from  interference  ;  the 
loyalty  of  the  country  would  be  taken  for  granted, 
and  certainly  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  was  not  just 
then  strong  enough  to  influence  them,  even  if  he  had 
been  minded  to  play  the  Princess  false,  which  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose.  It  is  not  without  signifi- 
cance that  this  first  Parliament  of  Richard  II.,  chosen 
without  any  bias  on  the  part  of  Wyclif  s  patrons, 
should  have  treated  him  with  so  much  distinction, 
consulting  him  on  a  State  question  of  capital  im- 
portance, and  receiving  (and  virtually  approving)  his 
rejoinder  to  the  papal  bulls. 


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CHAPTER  X. 


POPE   GREGORY  S    BULLS. 


May  22,  1377,  as  already 
mentioned,  Pope  Gregory  XI. 
signed  his  bulls  against  Wyclif. 
They  had  not  been  received 
in  England  before  the  death 
of  Edward  III.  on  June  21st. 
It  would  be  necessary  to  recall 
them  if  they  had  been  de- 
spatched, or  at  any  rate  to  send 
a  covering  letter  for  the  personal  appeal  which  was 
addressed  to  the  King.  In  view  of  the  consequent 
changes  and  pre-occupations  of  the  English  Govern- 
ment, Gregory  would  naturally  allow  two  or  three 
months  to  pass  before  he  opened  the  matter.  It 
does  not  appear  that  the  documents  were  actually 
delivered  in  England  until  the  Gloucester  Parliament 
had  been  sitting  for  over  a  fortnight. 

There  were  in  all  five    bulls,    one  of   which   was 
addressed  to  the   King,   one  to  the   University  of 


176  John  Wyclif,  wzn- 

Oxford,  and  the  other  three  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of  London  conjointly. 
Gregory  called  upon  the  Archbishop  and  Bishop  to 
examine  into  the  truth  of  the  nineteen  charges  which 
had  been  brought  against  Wyclif,  and  which  were 
set  forth  in  the  bulls.  The  ecclesiastics  were  to  warn 
the  Government  of  the  country  that  they  were  har- 
bouring a  dangerous  heretic,  and  were  to  demand 
his  arrest  ;  but  if  this  demand  were  not  complied 
with,  they  were  to  cite  him  to  appear  at  Rome.  As 
an  alternative  course,  which  may  or  may  not  have 
been  suggested  beforehand  by  Courtenay— it  was 
certainly  in  keeping  with  his  personal  courage  and 
independence — the  last  bull  invited  the  prelates  to 
arrest  the  accused  (assuming  that  he  was  found  to  be 
guilty  of  heresy  and  that  the  civil  arm  would  not 
touch  him),  and  to  await  the  sentence  of  the  Pope. 

The  bull  addressed  to  the  King  was  an  appeal  for 
the  royal  favour  and  protection  on  behalf  of  the 
two  prelates  in  their  action  against  Wyclif — whom 
Gregory  described  as  holding  and  teaching  the 
"unlearned  doctrine  "  of  Marsilius  of  Padua,  damnatce 
memories,  who  stands  condemned  by  Pope  John 
XXII.,  of  happy  memory. 

Writing  to  Oxford,  the  Pope  declared  that  he 
could  not  but  wonder  and  lament  that,  by  their  sloth 
and  laziness,  the  authorities  of  the  University  per- 
mitted tares  to  spring  up  amongst  the  genuine  wheat 
of  their  famous  soil,  and  not  only  to  spring  up  but, 
still  more  pernicious,  to  come  to  maturity,  without 
taking  any  trouble  to  root  them  out.  The  Holy 
Father  had  been  all  the  more  distressed  because  the 


1379]  Pope  Gregory  s  Bulls.  177 

flourishing  of  these  tares  had  been  recognised  at 
Rome  before  any  notice  had  been  taken  of  it  in  Eng- 
land, where  it  was  necessary  that  the  remedy  should 
be  applied.  After  more  expostulation  he  strictly  en- 
joined the  University,  in  virtue  of  their  obedience  to 
the  Holy  See,  and  under  penalty  of  being  deprived 
of  all  graces,  indulgences,  and  privileges  bestowed 
upon  them  by  the  said  See,  that  for  the  future  they 
should  suffer  no  man  to  teach  the  condemned  opin- 
ions within  the  University. 

The  nineteen  charges  which  had  been  made  against 
Wyclif,  and  which  were  endorsed  by  the  Pope's  bulls, 
attributed  to  him  the  following  opinions : 

1.  Not  even  the  universal  consent  of  mankind 
since  the  time  of  Christ  has  power  to  ordain  that 
Peter  and  his  successors  should  hold  political 
dominion  over  the  world. 

2.  God  himself  could  not  give  to  any  man  and 
his  heirs  a  civil  dominion  for  ever. 

3.  Charters  of  human  origin,  concerning  a  per- 
petual inheritance  for  the  future,  are   futile. 

3.  Everyone  that  is  finally  justified  not  only  has 
a  right  to,  but  actually  enjoys,  all  the  good  things 
of  God. 

5.  Man  can  only  ministerially  give  to  his  natural 
child,  or  to  a  child  of  imitation  in  the  school  of 
Christ,  temporal  or  eternal  dominion. 

6.  If  God  is  [omnipotent],  temporal  lords  may 
lawfully  and  meritoriously  take  away  the  property 
which   has  accrued  to  a  delinquent  Church. 

7.  Whether  the  Church  be  in  such  a  state  or  not 
it  is  not  my  business  to  examine,  but  the  business 


178  John  Wyclif.  [1377 

of  temporal  lords,  who,  if  they  find  it  in  such  a  state, 
are  to  act  boldly,  and  on  pain  of  damnation  to  take 
away  its  temporalities. 

8.  We  know  that  it  is  impossible  that  the  Vicar 
of  Christ  should,  purely  by  his  bulls,  or  by  them 
with  the  will  and  consent  of  himself  and  his  College 
of  Cardinals,  qualify  or  disqualify  anyone. 

9.  It  is  not  possible  for  any  man  to  be  excom- 
municated, unless  he  be  first  and  principally  ex- 
communicated by  himself. 

10.  Nobody  is  excommunicated,  suspended,  or 
tormented  with  other  censures  so  as  to  be  the  worse 
for  it,  unless  it  be  in  the  cause  of  God. 

11.  Cursing  or  excommunication  does  not  bind 
simply  of  itself,  but  only  so  far  as  it  is  denounced 
against  an  adversary  of  the  law  of  Christ. 

12.  Christ  has  given  to  his  disciples  no  example 
of  a  power  to  excommunicate  subjects  principally 
for  their  denying  temporal  things,  but  has  rather 
given  them  an  example  to  the  contrary. 

13.  The  disciples  of  Christ  have  no  power  forci- 
bly to  exact  temporal  things  by  censures. 

14.  It  is  not  possible  even  for  the  absolute  power 
of  God  to  effect  that,  if  the  Pope  or  any  other 
pretend  that  he  binds  or  looses  absolutely,  he  does 
actually  so  bind  or  loose. 

15.  We  ought  to  believe  that  then  only  does  the 
Pope  bind  or  loose  when  he  conforms  himself  to 
the  law  of  Christ. 

16.  This  ought  to  be  universally  believed,  that 
every  priest  rightly  ordained  has  a  power  of  adminis- 
tering every  one  of  the  sacraments,  and,  by  conse- 


13791  Pope  Gregory  s  Bulls.  179 

quence,  of  absolving  every  contrite  person  from  any 
sin. 

17.  It  is  lawful  for  kings  to  take  away  tem- 
poralities from  ecclesiastics  who  habitually  abuse 
them. 

18.  Whether  temporal  lords,  or  holy  Popes,  or 
saints,  or  the  head  of  the  Church,  which  is  Christ, 
have  endowed  the  Church  with  goods  of  fortune  or 
of  grace,  and  have  excommunicated  those  who  take 
away  its  temporalities,  it  is  notwithstanding  lawful, 
by  the  condition  implied  in  the  endowment,  to  strip 
her  of  temporalities  for  an  adequate  offence. 

19.  An  ecclesiastic,  yea,  even  the  Pope  of  Rome, 
may  lawfully  be  corrected  by  subjects,  and  even  by 
the  laity,  and  may  also  be  accused  or  impeached  by 
them. 

We  have  only  to  carry  ourselves  back  in  spirit  to 
the  intellectual  and  religious  atmosphere  of  the  four- 
teenth century  in  order  to  realise  how  overwhelming 
such  a  charge  as  that  now  brought  against  Wyclif  must 
have  appeared  to  every  pious  person  who  accepted 
the  allegations  as  correct.  Even  those  who  thought 
with  him,  who  were  able  to  keep  pace  with  his  logic, 
and  knew  how  reverently  his  beliefs  were  entertained, 
must  have  stood  aghast  in  many  instances  at  the 
temerity  with  which  he  assailed  the  position  of  the 
Popes  and  the  current  orthodoxy  of  his  day.  And 
Wyclif  himself  could  scarcely  hope  to  escape  the 
censures  of  Rome,  or  even  of  the  English  bishops 
if  they  were  compelled  to  pronounce  a  formal  judg- 
ment on  his  conclusions.  He  knew  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  obtain  a  perfectly  impartial  tribunal  within 


180  John  Wyclif.  n377- 

the  Church,  and  probably  foresaw  that  only  the  lapse 
of  time  could  discredit  a  system  which  had  required 
so  many  generations  to  build  it  up. 

The  reception  of  the  bulls  was  very  different  in 
different  quarters.  Courtenay  alone  rejoiced  in  his 
opportunity,  and  prepared  to  silence  effectually  this 
discordant  and  disturbing  note  within  the  national 
Church.  Sudbury  invited  the  Chancellor  of  Oxford 
to  send  him  assessors  and  doctors  of  divinity,  stating 
that  he  meant  to  hold  an  inquiry  as  requested  by  the 
Pope,  but  implying  that  he  did  not  intend  to  go  be- 
yond the  inquiry.  At  Oxford  there  was  a  decided 
feeling  of  annoyance  over  Gregory's  message  ;  and 
the  King's  Council  could  not  fail  to  look  with 
jealousy  and  dislike  on  the  introduction  of  the  bulls, 
which,  strictly  regarded,  were  a  defiance  of  English 
law  and  an  encroachment  on  the  authority  of  the 
Crown. 

It  was  necessary  for  Wyclif,  in  view  of  his  official 
relations  with  Parliament,  to  send  in  a  statement 
dealing  with  the  bull  which  had  been  addressed  to 
the  King.  Perhaps  he  was  called  upon  to  do  so  ;  or 
he  may  have  thought  it  only  respectful  on  his  part 
to  make  his  position  clear  to  a  body  of  men  who  had 
placed  their  confidence  in  him,  and  some  of  whom 
would  certainly  take  the  side  of  his  accusers.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  open  censure  of  the  Pope 
marked  another  important  turning-point  in  his  life, 
and  that  from  this  time  forward  he  would  have  a 
largely  increased  number  of  his  countrymen  ranged 
against  him.  The  paper  presented  to  Parliament 
was  in  almost  the  same  terms  as  that  read  before  the 


1379]  Pope  Gregory  s  Bulls,  181 

Pope's  Commissioners  at  Lambeth,  to  which  we  shall 
presently  come  ;  but  it  differs  in  its  conclusion. 

*•  This"  he  says,  "  is  in  some  respect  an  answer  to 
the  bull.  I  want  to  be  considered  as  delivering  these 
conclusions  like  a  grain  of  faith,  separated  from  the 
chaff  in  which  the  unwelcome  tares  are  burned,  which 
tares,  after  their  red  blossom  of  malodorous  revenge, 
provide  materials  for  Antichrist  against  the  genuine 
writings  of  faith.  An  unmistakable  sign  whereof  is 
that  a  poison  born  of  the  Evil  One  reigns  in  the 
hearts  of  the  clergy,  a  pride  which  consists  in  the 
lust  of  mastery,  whose  mate,  the  lust  of  earthly  goods, 
begets  children  of  the  devil,  whilst  the  children  of 
evangelical  poverty  are  extinct.  You  may  judge  of 
the  fruitfulness  of  this  procreation  by  the  fact  that 
many  even  of  the  children  of  poverty  give  coun- 
tenance to  the  degenerate  brood,  either  by  speech  or 
by  silence,  whether  because  they  are  not  strong 
enough  or  because  they  do  not  dare,  on  account  of 
the  seed  of  the  man  of  sin  which  has  been  sown  in 
their  hearts,  or  from  a  slavish  fear  of  losing  such 
temporalities  as  they  have,  to  make  a  stand  for  evan- 
gelical poverty." 

The  tenour  of  the  statement  made  by  Wyclif  to 
the  University  was  very  similar  to  this,  and  it  is 
evident  from  the  bitterness  of  the  few  sentences  just 
quoted  that  the  keen  and  natural  indignation  of 
the  man  could  not  be  altogether  suppressed.  His 
moral  and  intellectual  appreciation  of  the  unchristlike 
attitude  of  the  Christian  Churches  of  his  day,  sensi- 
tive and  palpitating  as  it  was,  had  been  stung  to  the 
quick.     He  would  have  been  something  very  different 


1 82  John  Wyclif,  n377 

from  what  we  know  him  to  have  been  if  he  could 
have  seen  anything  less  than  Antichrist  in  the  viru- 
lence with  which  an  advocate  of  ecclesiastical  poverty 
was  attacked  by  the  Vicar  of  Christ  and  by  the 
English  prelates. 

How  does  Oxford  bear  the  scrutiny  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  in  this  connection,  across  an  interval 
of  five  hundred  years?  Half  a  millennium  has 
passed  since  the  premier  University  drew  to  the 
close  of  her  first  golden  age.  For  Wyclif  Oxford 
was  still  the  head-quarters  of  thought,  and  work, 
and  love.  It  was  to  Black  Hall  in  Oxford  that  he 
hurried,  as  soon  as  the  session  was  concluded  at 
Gloucester,  in  order  to  hold  communion  with  his 
life-long  friends — as  another  famous  son  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church,  in  circumstances  curiously  contrasted, 
yet  in  a  certain  sense  parallel  with  those  of  Wyclif 
at  this  crisis  in  his  faith,  went  up  from  Littlemore 
in  the  memory  of  some  who  are  still  living,  to  see,  as 
he  puts  it,  "  those  familiar  affectionate  companions 
and  counsellors,  who  in  Oxford  were  given  to  me, 
one  after  another,  to  be  my  daily  solace  and  relief ; 
and  all  those  others,  of  great  name  and  high  exam- 
ple, who  were  my  thorough  friends,  and  showed  me 
true  attachment  in  times  long  past ;  and  also  those 
many  young  men,  whether  I  knew  them  or  not,  who 
have  never  been  disloyal  to  me  byword  or  by  deed." 
Wyclif  was  approaching  a  mental  and  moral  crisis 
quite  as  searching  for  him  as  that  through  which 
Newman  had  passed  in  1843.  His  doubts  on  the 
subject  of  transubstantiation  had  already  begun  to 
take  form  and  substance,  and  he  must  have  felt  that 


t379i  Pope  Gregory  s  Bulls.  183 

the  action  of  Rome  and  Canterbury  would  impel  him 
to  a  decision  from  which  even  his  warmest  friends 
would  be  likely  to  start  back  in  alarm. 

But  up  to  this  point  the  question  was  not  of  tran- 
substantiation.  The  Archbishop  and  the  Bishop, 
seeing  that  Wyclif  had  betaken  himself  to  Oxford, 
and  allowing  the  claim  which  he  had  thus  tacitly 
made  on  his  University,  wrote  on' December  18th  to 
demand  that  the  Chancellor  and  the  theological  au- 
thorities should  hold  an  inquiry  and  make  a  report 
in  answer  to  the  papal  bull,  and  that  they  should 
then  remit  the  accused  to  London,  to  appear  to 
their  own  citation.  Oxford  stood  the  test.  The 
Chancellor  directed  Wycliff  to  remain  within  the 
hall  where  he  was  lodging,  and  the  "  conclusions  •' 
which  Gregory  had  condemned  were  duly  examined, 
together  with  Wyclif's  rejoinder.  The  decision 
arrived  at  was  of  a  most  important  character. 
Oxford  declared  the  conclusions  to  be  true,  and  not 
heretical,  though  they  were  so  expressed  as  to  be 
open  to  misconception. 

With  this  testimonial  from  his  University  Wyclif 
was  able  to  make  his  appearance  before  the  prelates 
with  a  stout  heart,  but  probably  not  without  a  con- 
viction that  his  struggle  against  the  papal  Court  was 
rapidly  coining  to  an  issue. 

Meanwhile  his  most  implacable  enemies  must 
have  regarded  all  these  things  as  mere  by-play,  and 
they  must  have  been  impatient  for  the  discipline  of 
the  Holy  See  to  produce  its  natural  effect.  The 
lightning  had  been  hurled,  and  they  wanted  to  hear 
the    unmistakable    thunders    of  Rome.       It  was  all 


184  John  Wyclif.  H377- 

very  well  for  the  nobles  and  the  young  King's  mother 
to  lull  the  heretic  into  fancied  security,  and  for  his 
University  to  stand  by  him  in  a  spirit  of  simple 
partisanship  ;  but  Rome  had  spoken,  and  the  efforts 
of  the  orthodox,  continued  over  a  series  of  years, 
were  about  to  meet  their  due  reward.  Devout 
sons  of  the  Church,  and  good  friars  in  particular, 
had  been  scandalised  and  tricked  often  enough,  but 
at  last  the  fox  was  run  to  earth,  and  the  whole  hunt 
were  longing  to  see  him  taken. 

Archbishop  Sudbury  had  originally  cited  Wyclif 
to  appear  on  the  18th  of  December  at  St.  Paul's, 
where,  ten  short  months  before,  he  had  slipped 
through  Courtenay's  hands,  owing  to  the  disturbed 
condition  of  the  city,  and  the  deadly  feud  between 
the  citizens  and  the  Duke  of  Lancaster.  It  would 
not  be  strange  if  this  appointment  was  counter- 
manded because  the  citizens,  with  the  easy  versa- 
tility of  mankind  in  the  mass,  were  now  more  likely 
to  be  on  Lancaster's  side  than  against  him.  Possibly 
London  had  not  changed  its  mind  and  its  sympa- 
thies in  regard  to  Wyclif,  except  that  Gregory's 
bulls  must  have  made  it  more  Wycliffite  than  ever; 
but  John  of  Gaunt  had  almost  ceased  to  vex  the 
citizens.  They  were  enthusiastic  for  the  Princess 
Joan,  who  had  not  concealed  her  liking  for  the 
Court  preacher  ;  and  they  had  men  to  lead  them, 
like  brave  John  of  Northampton,  who  had  boasted 
that  no  bull  from  the  Pope  of  Rome  should  harm 
John  Wyclif  within  the  liberties  of  the  city. 

The  citizens  had  been  stirred,  no  doubt,  as  Oxford 
had    been    stirred,   and    liberal-minded     Christians 


1379]  Pope  Gregory  s  Bulls.  185 

throughout  England,  by  a  moving  appeal  just  circu- 
lated far  and  wide  over  London  and  the  provinces. 
It  was  an  anonymous  tract,  vigorous  and  eloquent, 
calling  upon  all  good  clerks  and  Christians  to  stand 
together  at  that  important  crisis,  and  rally  in  defence 
of  the  conclusions  of  Wyclif,  and  the  independence 
of  the  English  Church.  "  If  these  conclusions  are 
heretical,"  said  the  pamphleteer,-  "  Holy  Scripture 
itself  falls  to  pieces."  The  tract  has  been  generally 
ascribed  to  Wyclif.  Whoever  wrote  it,  it  seems  to 
have  been  very  effective,  and  the  Londoners  were 
enthusiastic  for  the  man  who  was  making  such  a  bold 
stand  against  the  Pope. 

At  any  rate  the  prelates  lost  their  nerve,  and  they 
were  compelled  to  change  the  venue.  Sudbury 
postponed  the  hearing  until  after  Christmas,  and 
summoned  the  accused  to  his  town-house  near  the 
Lamb  Hithe.  The  Archbishop  was  just  now  on  as 
good  terms  as  ever  with  the  Duke,  and  perhaps,  if 
the  truth  were  known,  he  was  not  sorry  to  shift  his 
ground  almost  within  earshot  of  the  royal  palace  at 
Kennington.  The  whole  thing  was  more  Courtenay's 
affair  than  his,  and,  if  Courtenay  could  not  answer 
for  the  rabble  round  his  own  cathedral,  the  nearer 
they  drew  to  the  protection  of  the  Court,  the  better 
Sudbury  would  be  pleased. 

So,  on  the  appointed  day,  John  Wyclif  came 
before  his  judges  at  Lambeth,  and  with  his  cool 
collected  look  he  scanned  the  group  of  assessors — 
doctors  of  decretals,  professors  of  theology  and  of  the 
"sacred  page,"  whether  secular  clergymen,  monks, 
or  friars,  who  had  come  up  for  the  occasion  from 


1 86  John  Wyclif.  L1377- 

Oxford  and  Cambridge.  It  was  perhaps  not  he  who 
would  be  most  disconcerted  by  that  mutual  recog- 
nition. 

He  had  brought  with  him  a  written  paper  of 
declarations,  by  way  of  defence  against  the  charges. 
After  the  preliminaries  were  over,  and  Sudbury  had 
reminded  him  what  it  was  that  he  was  called  upon 
to  answer,  he  would  be  allowed  to  read  his  defence  ; 
and  the  paper  in  which  his  apology  was  comprised 
has  been  handed  down  to  us — carefully  preserved 
by  his  stern  censor,  Thomas  of  Walden.  This 
document,  practically  re-stating  and  justifying  all 
the  conclusions  which  had  been  attributed  to  him, 
opened  in  a  strain  of  dignified  humility. 

"To  begin  with,"  he  said,  "  I  make  my  public 
profession,  as  I  have  often  done  elsewhere,  professing 
and  claiming  with  my  whole  heart  to  be,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  a  sound  Christian,  and  that  so  far  as  I  am 
able,  whilst  there  is  breath  in  my  body,  I  speak  forth 
and  defend  the  law  of  Christ.  Furthermore,  if,  by 
ignorance  or  any  other  cause,  I  fall  short  in  this,  I 
beseech  my  God  for  pardon,  and  I  do  here  and  now 
revoke  and  withdraw  it,  submitting  myself  to  the 
correction  of  holy  Mother  Church.  ...  I  desire 
to  state  in  writing  my  conviction  in  regard  to  that 
whereof  I  have  been  accused,  which  I  will  defend 
even  to  the  death,  as  I  hold  that  all  Christians  ought 
to  do — and  in  particular  the  Roman  Pontiff,  and  the 
other  priests  of  the  Church." 

Then  the  indomitable  man  set  himself  to  expound 
and  expand  his  conclusions,  and  stated  them  all 
over  again  with  increased  clearness  and  pungency, 


1379]  Pope  Gregory  s  Bulls,  187 

neither  shirking  nor  fining  down,  but  treating  every 
charge  as  a  text  for  new  exposition.  Had  it  been 
arranged  (by  others,  of  course,  than  Courtenay)  that 
he  should  have  his  say,  completely  and  deliberately, 
and  that  then  this  abortive  farce  of  the  Pope's  juris- 
diction in  England  should  be  brought  to  an  end  ? 
The  Council,  or  at  all  events  the  Princess  of  Wales, 
had  resolved  that  there  should  be  no  definite  action 
upon  Gregory's  bulls  ;  and  on  the  previous  evening, 
according  to  some  accounts,  but  at  any  rate  before 
the  conclusion  of  the  hearing,  one  Lewis  Clifford 
brought  them  word  from  the  King's  mother  that 
they  were  not  to  pass  judgment  on  Wyclif.  The 
reference  of  the  St.  Alban's  chronicle  to  these  pro- 
ceedings is  so  quaint,  and  the  indignation  of  the 
writer  is  so  natural  in  an  orthodox  monk  of  his  day, 
that  a  few  sentences  may  be  quoted  here. 

"  It  would  be  better  to  say  nothing  than  to  speak 
of  the  indifferent  and  slothful  manner  in  which  the 
two  Bishops  performed  the  task  entrusted  to  them. 
.  .  .  On  the  arrival  of  the  day  (instante  die) 
appointed  for  the  examination  of  that  apostate, 
through  fear  of  a  reed  shaken  by  the  wind,  they 
made  their  words  softer  than  oil,  to  the  public  loss 
of  their  own  dignity  and  to  the  damage  of  the  uni- 
versal Church.  The  men  who  had  sworn  that  they 
would  not  obey  the  very  barons  and  princes  of  the 
kingdom  until  they  had  punished  the  excesses  of  the 
heresiarch  himself,  according  to  the  commands  of 
the  Pope,  were  paralysed  with  terror  at  the  sight  of 
some  fellow  from  the  court  of  the  Princess  Joan, 
who  was  neither  a  knight  of  good  standing  nor  a 


1 38  John  Wyclif.  H377- 

man  of  any  influence,  one  Lewis  Clifford  to  wit,  who 
pompously  ordered  them  that  they  should  not  pre- 
sume to  come  to  any  formal  decision  concerning  the 
aforesaid  John.  " 

It  is  uncertain  how  far  the  inquiry  before  Sudbury 
and  Courtenay  was  allowed  to  proceed.  The  Prin- 
cess and  the  Duke  were  not  the  only  bars  to  its 
progress.  Possibly  Wyclif  had  read  his  defence,  and 
Courtenay,  it  may  be,  relieving  the  Gallio-like  Arch- 
bishop of  his  function,  had  exchanged  a  few  vigor- 
ous words  with  the  accused.  His  judges  were  awk- 
wardly placed,  and  were  anything  but  masters  of  the 
situation.  The  few  contemporary  references  to  this 
dramatic  scene  unfortunately  do  not  condescend  to 
many  details,  and  the  details  which  they  give  are 
not  consistent.  According  to  the  continuation  of 
Murimuth's  history,  "  the  Archbishop  imposed 
silence  on  him  and  all  other  persons,  in  regard  to  the 
matter  in  question,  in  the  presence  of  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster," — this  being  evidently  mentioned  as  a 
proof  of  Sudbury's  courage — "  forbidding  him 
thenceforth  to  meddle  with  or  dwell  upon  the  points 
at  issue,  or  to  suffer  others,"  his  Poor  Priests,  for 
instance,  "  to  spread  them  abroad.  And  for  a  time 
both  he  and  they  kept  silence  " — which  is  not  very 
likely, — "  but  at  length,  relying  on  the  temporal 
authorities,  they  again  took  up  the  same  opinions, 
and  others  which  were  far  worse,  and  persevered  in 
their  mischievous  errors." 

Then  the  inevitable  citizens,  who  had  tramped 
across  London  Bridge,  and  through  the  Borough  to 
the  Archbishop's  chapel,  put  themselves  in  evidence 


1379]  Pope  Gregory  s  Bulls.  189 

again ;  and  it  must  have  been  clear  to  Courtenay 
that,  even  if  the  King's  mother  and  uncle  had  not 
protected  this  obstinate  sower  of  tares,  still  the  head- 
strong merchants,  tradesmen,  and  apprentices  from 
his  own  diocese  would  have  made  it  extremely  diffi- 
cult for  him  to  give  full  effect  to  the  papal  bulls.  As 
it  was,  the  irruption  of  the  citizens  broke  up  the 
proceedings,  and  Wyclif,  as  just  said,  escaped  with  a 
mild  warning.  The  St.  Alban's  chronicler,  who  was 
living  at  the  time,  declares  that  the  crafty  heretic 
(versipellis)  tricked  his  examiners  through  the 
favour  and  zeal  of  the  men  of  London,  scoffed  at 
the  Bishops,  and  slipped  away. 

It  is  possible  enough,  considering  the  force  and 
boldness  of  Courtenay's  character,  that  he  may  have 
had  it  in  his  mind  and  openly  expressed  his  inten- 
tion to  condemn  Wyclif  in  spite  of  the  request  of  the 
Princess  of  Wales,  even  at  the  risk  of  personal  dis- 
aster to  himself.  That  would  explain  the  holding 
of  the  sitting  after  Clifford's  message,  the  presence 
and  watchfulness  of  the  Duke,  and  the  turbulence  of 
the  crowd  of  citizens.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
Sudbury  and  Courtenay  were  acting  not  merely  as 
prelates  but  also  as  the  Commissioners  of  the  Pope ; 
and  the  Bishop  at  all  events  may  have  felt  and 
declared  that  his  duty  to  the  Holy  Father  was  higher 
than  his  duty  to  the  Princess.  He  is  not  likely  to 
have  changed  his  opinion  on  this  point,  though  he 
may  well  have  despaired  for  the  moment  of  reaching 
the  heretic  behind  the  protection  of  the  royal  family 
and  the  public  favour. 

The  death  of  Gregory,  which  would  in  any  case 


190  John  Wyclif.  [1377- 

have  put  an  end  to  the  Commission,  took  place  on 
the  27th  of  March.  The  news  would  not  reach  Eng- 
land for  some  days  later,  and  could  not  have  been 
anticipated  at  the  hearing  in  Lambeth  Chapel.  On 
the  contrary,  the  authority  of  the  Pope  and  the  de- 
termination of  Courtenay  must  have  been  consider- 
ably strengthened  by  the  recent  return  of  the  papal 
Court  to  Rome. 

The  fact  is  manifest  that  the  bulls  of  1377,  ob- 
tained by  the  religious  Orders  and  acted  upon  by  the 
Archbishop  and  Bishop,  were  not  only  a  venture- 
some experiment  against  the  laws  of  England  and 
the  notorious  feelings  of  Englishmen,  but  also  a 
grave  tactical  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  Holy  See. 
The  mere  introduction  of  bulls  into  the  country  was 
an  exasperating  challenge  to  the  English  Parliament 
and  Church,  and  could  only  weaken  the  cause 
which  they  were  intended  to  promote.  Courtenay, 
with  some  of  the  bishops  and  the  friars,  may  have 
rejoiced  over  their  promulgation,  but  it  is  doubtful 
if  anyone  else  shared  their  feelings.  The  Arch- 
bishop certainly  fought  shy  of  them.  The  young 
King's  advisers  resolved  at  once  to  set  them  aside; 
and  Oxford,  as  we  have  seen,  was  morally  and  in- 
tellectually strong  enough  to  decide  that  the  con- 
clusions which  the  Pope  had  declared  heretical  were 
substantially  true. 

By  the  mistake  of  his  enemies  Wyclif  came  out  of 
the  ordeal  stronger  and  more  influential  than  he  had 
been  at  any  previous  period  of  his  life.  From  the 
time  of  his  first  prosecution  in  the  spring  of  1377  to 
the  dark  days  in  which  he  was  accused  of  having 


1379]  Pope  Gregory  s  Bulls.  191 

incited  the  peasants  to  revolt,  if  not  indeed  to  the 
end  of  his  earthly  career,  he  was  the  most  important 
religious  factor  in  England.  Nevertheless  it  is  clear 
that  his  enemies  did  not  give  him  much  rest  between 
their  successive  attacks. 

The  English  ecclesiastics  had  made  up  their  minds 
to  push  the  assault  on  Wyclif's  position  to  an  issue, 
and  even  the  death  of  Gregory,  with  the  subsequent 
schism,  only  served  to  interpose  a  brief  delay.  The 
outcome  of  the  Lambeth  hearing  was  naturally 
unsatisfactory  to  them,  and  they  doubtless  took 
counsel  with  the  Roman  Curia  on  the  earliest  pos- 
sible opportunity,  with  a  view  to  further  and  more 
effectual  proceedings.  It  does  not  plainly  appear 
whether  Pope  Urban  took  any  immediate  step  to 
bring  Wyclif  to  account,  but  there  are  passages  in 
one  of  the  Reformer's  most  important  and  well-con- 
sidered works  which  read  as  though  he  had  had 
something  to  answer  in  1379.  He  wrote  in  the  De 
Veritate  Sanctae  Scripturae  in  the  spring  of  this  year : 

"  I  protested  in  writing,  and  it  was  sent  to  the 
papal  Curia  by  the  hands  of  two  of  the  bishops,  that 
I  wish  to  insist  upon  my  declaration,  which  I  have 
made  in  the  language  of  Holy  Scripture  and  the 
sacred  doctors ;  for  my  salvation  in  two  senses  de- 
pends upon  that  language,  and  my  double  death 
would  follow  upon  its  contradiction.  .  .  .  Surely 
it  is  clear  from  what  I  have  done  that  I  have  no 
fear  in  consequence  of  those  conclusions,  since  I  cir- 
culated them  through  a  great  part  of  England  and 
of  Christendom,  and  even  to  the  Roman  Curia,  in 
order  that  they  might  be  inquired  into,  at  any  rate 


192  John  Wyclif.  L1379 

indirectly.  ...  I  have  no  misgiving  as  to  the 
truth  of  the  said  conclusions,  for  I  am  willing  that 
they  should  be  examined  not  only  by  the  Curia  but 
by  the  whole  Church  militant  and  triumphant,  that 
is  to  say  our  holy  Mother  Church,  to  which  I  have 
humbly  submitted  myself — and  far  be  it  from  me  to 
exclude  the  Roman  Church,  which  I  hold  to  be  the 
head  of  all  the  militant  Churches.  Wherefore,  since 
I  wished  the  matter  at  stake  to  be  communicated 
to  the  clergy  and  laity,  I  collected  and  forwarded 
thirty-three  conclusions,  written  in  both  languages." 
There  is  something  which  needs  to  be  cleared  up 
in  connection  with  this  bold  challenge,  and  with  the 
facts  which  preceded  and  followed  it.  Urban's  own 
troubles,  and  the  illness  of  Wyclif  in  1379,  may 
partly  account  for  the  delay  of  formal  and  public 
prosecution  ;  but  it  would  be  interesting  to  learn  the 
exact  circumstances  under  which  the  two  bishops 
sent  the  above-mentioned  protest  to  Rome,  and  the 
answer  (if  any)  which  was  made  to  the  challenge. 


POPE    URBAN   VI. 

1378-89. 


CHAPTER   XI 


WYCLIF    THE    EVANGELIST. 


HE  title  of  Doctor  Evangeli- 
cus,  bestowed  on  John  Wyclif 
by  certain  of  his  contempora- 
ries and  successors,  was  un- 
questionably earned  by  the 
importance  which  he  attached 

^«^2!&ffS&^3^il  to  ^e  worc^s  °f  Holy  Writ,  by 
J^Q^^^^^^l  his  heroic  resolve  to  translate 
the  Bible  into  English,  and  by 
his  commission  of  the  "  Poor  Priests,"  who  were  sent 
out  for  the  express  purpose  of  reading  and  preach- 
ing upon  the  English  Scriptures. 

His  action  in  appointing  and  commissioning  these 
enthusiastic  preachers  of  the  Gospel  has  been  com- 
pared with  that  of  Dominic  and  Francis  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  earlier.  The  parallel  is  not  very 
close,  but  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  the  Reformer 
was  inspired  by  those  two  conspicuous  examples  to 
13  193 


194  John   Wyclif.  t1360- 


adopt  a  similar  method,  in  the  hope  of  re-awakening 
the  conscience  of  Christian  men  and  women.  He 
could  think  of  no  better  way  of  rousing  the  spirits 
of  his  ignorant  countrymen  than  to  put  the  Bible  in 
the  hands  of  devoted  missionaries,  and  to  bid  them 
take  it  as  their  text  whenever  and  wherever  they 
could  get  an  audience  together.  If  he  gave  them 
any  definite  rules  for  their  guidance  beyond  this,  the 
rules  have  not  been  handed  down  to  us.*  The 
mendicant  Orders  have  preserved  their  constitutions, 
which  strike  one  as  being  almost  too  elaborate  to 
have  proceeded  from  the  original  founders  of  those 
Orders.  The  constitution  of  the  Russet  Priests  may 
have  been  from  first  to  last  an  unwritten  law,  as 
simple  as  the  earliest  Christian  commission  on 
record — "  Go  into  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel." 
At  any  rate  that  is  practically  the  limit  of  our 
knowledge  concerning  them — with  one  exception 
hereafter  to  be  mentioned.  We  do  not  know  when 
the  first  Poor  Priest  was  despatched,  nor  how  many 
were  commissioned,  nor  where  they  went,  nor  what 
was  the  measure  of  their  success.  We  know  their 
work,  but  not  their  names.  We  recognise  the  tree 
by  its  fruits,  and  the  best  evidence  of  their  probably 
life-long  labours  is  to  be  found  in  the  conspicuous 
and  astonishing  vitality  of  so-called  Lollard  ism 
throughout  the  next  few  generations.  The  teach- 
ings of  Wyclif  and  his  missionaries,  based  upon  a 
simple  and  familiar  treatment  of  the  Bible,  which 
had  hitherto  been  jealously  and  mysteriously  with- 


*  See,  however,  Chapter  XIV. 


13791  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  195 

held,  sank  during  these  generations  so  deeply  into 
the  popular  mind  that  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  found  all  England  saturated  with  biblical 
knowledge.  It  is  marvellous  that  such  widespread 
results  should  have  left  behind  them  so  little  visible 
testimony  of  the  process  by  which  they  were  brought 
about. 

But  indeed  the  very  silence  of  history  as  to  the 
personality  of  Wyclif  s  Poor  Priests,  and  as  to  the 
details  of  their  appointment  and  mission,  is  eloquent 
of  the  simplicity,  the  enthusiasm,  the  single-minded 
devotion  with  which  they  set  about  their  work. 
Knowledge  of  and  reverence  for  Holy  Writ,  an  un- 
bleached sheepskin,  a  broad  hat,  and  a  pair  of  san- 
dals made  up  their  moral  and  material  equipment. 
Some  of  them  were  certainly  university  men,  whilst 
some  had  graduated  by  the  side  of  the  master  whom 
they  revered,  in  no  other  learning  than  that  of  "  the 
sacred  page."  It  may  be  that  the  more  scholarly 
amongst  them  carried  copies  of  the  Bible,  or  of  the 
Gospels.only,  made  industriously  by  their  own  hands, 
at  Oxford,  at  London,  or  at  Lutterworth.  In  the 
same  way  they  may  have  taken  with  them  a  few  of 
Wyclif  s  sermons,  or  notes  from  the  sermons  which 
they  had  heard  him  preach.  But  the  humblest  of 
them  all,  it  is  very  easy  to  believe,  had  nothing  more 
than  a  well-furnished  memory,  together  with  a  tested 
power  to  move  the  hearts  of  their  fellow-men. 

Naturally  the  first  translations  made  by  Wyclif 
from  the  Latin  Bible  were  taken  in  hand  some  time 
before  the  Poor  Priests  went  forth  on  their  mission. 
It  is  impossible  to  fix  a  date  for  the  beginning  of  the 


196  John  Wyclif.  [1360- 

work  by  Wyclif  himself,  or  for  its  continuation  by 
Nicholas  Hereford  at  Oxford,  John  Purvey  at  Lut- 
terworth, and  their  assistants.  Nor  would  it  be  easy 
to  say  when  Wyclif  began  to  write  for  his  contempo- 
raries in  English,  or  what  is  the  date  of  his  earliest 
English  works  which  we  now  possess.  But  as  to  the 
motives  which  led  him  to  translate  the  Bible  for 
popular  use,  we  are  left  in  no  doubt  whatever.  In 
a  work,  Of  the  Truth  of  Holy  Scripture,  written 
soon  after  his  second  escape  from  the  hands  of 
Courtenay,  and  before  his  English  Bible  was  com- 
pleted, he  puts  his  case  both  clearly  and  fully. 
God's  will,  he  says,  is  plainly  expressed  in  the  two 
Testaments  taken  together.  Christ's  law  suffices  for 
Christ's  Church,  without  requiring  the  addition  or 
substitution  of  another  priest-made  law,  and  the 
Christian  who  understands  it  has  enough  for  his 
needs  in  this  world.  The  direct  message  and  voice 
of  God  to  man  in  the  words  of  Holy  Writ,  without 
any  necessity  for  an  intermediary — this  was  his 
"  passionate  conviction  of  truth  "  ;  and  we  can  un- 
derstand how  such  a  declaration  would  shock  the 
conventional  orthodoxy  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
In  another  place  he  lays  it  down  that  "  Christen 
men  and  women,  olde  and  young,  shulden  study  fast 
in  the  New  Testament,  and  no  simple  man  of  wit 
shuldebe  aferdeunmesurably  to  study  in  the  text  of 
holy  Writ.  Pride  and  covetise  of  clerks  is  cause  of 
their  blyndnesse  and  heresie,  and  priveth  them  fro 
verie  understonding  of  holy  Writ.  The  New  Testa- 
ment is  of  ful  autoritie,  and  open  to  understonding 
of  simple  men,  as  to  the  poynts  that  ben  most  need- 


1379]  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  197 

ful  to  salvation.  The  texte  of  holy  Writ  ben  wordes 
of  everlasting  life,  and  he  that  kepeth  mekenes  and 
charitie  hath  the  trewe  understondynge  and  perfec- 
tion of  all  holy  Writ.  It  seemeth  open  heresy  to  say 
that  the  Gospel  with  his  truth  and  freedom  suffiseth 
not  to  salvation  of  Christen  men  without  kepynge 
of  ceremonies  and  statutes  of  sinful  men  and  un- 
kunninge,  that  ben  made  in  the  tyme  of  Sathanas 
and  Antichriste." 

Wyclif,  of  course,  exercised  a  notable  influence  on 
the  history  of  English  letters.  He  had  been  born 
into  the  early  renaissance  of  literature,  as  well  as 
into  the  early  reformation  of  religion  ;  and  since  he 
was  himself,  in  each  of  these  two  domains,  a  not  in- 
considerable part  of  the  epoch  through  which  he 
lived,  a  brief  glance  at  the  literary  aspects  of  his 
century  may  help  us  to  appreciate  his  position  as  a 
pioneer  of  progress  in  the  creation  of  the  language 
which  we  speak  and  write  to-day. 

In  and  about  the  fourteenth  century,  English,  in 
common  with  the  other  languages  of  modern 
Europe,  made  an  important  advance  towards  a  defi- 
nite written  form.  The  central  and  western  tongues 
had  gradually  developed  themselves  out  of  the  in- 
terfused vocabularies  and  grammatical  types  of  the 
Classical,  Celtic,  Scandinavian,  and  German  stocks. 
Men  of  learning  and  imagination  in  Italy,  France, 
Spain,  Germany,  and  England  were  only  just  begin- 
ning to  find  free  literary  expression  in  the  familiar 
languages  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  use  in 
their  domestic  and  social  intercourse.  Latin  was  for 
the  clergy,  for  philosophers  and  students;  it  could 


198  John  Wyclif.  [1360 


never  be  a  fit  medium  for  modern  thought  and 
fancy.  And  yet,  where  except  in  Latin  could  lit- 
erary expression  be  found  ?  "The  delicacy,"  says 
Hallam,  "  that  distinguishes  in  words  the  shades  of 
sentiment,  the  grace  that  brings  them  to  the  soul 
of  the  reader  with  the  charm  of  novelty  united  to 
clearness,  could  not  be  attainable  in  a  colloquial 
jargon."  Nor  could  such  a  jargon  possibly  attain  to 
distinction  and  style  where  (as  in  our  own  country) 
the  speech  of  the  people  was  not  the  speech  of  the 
Court,  the  talk  of  the  peasant  was  not  the  talk  of 
those  who  owned  the  soil,  the  tongue  of  men  who 
sought  for  justice  was  not  the  tongue  of  such  as  had 
to  administer  it.  Where  was  genius  to  find  her 
niche,  until  the  language  of  everyday  life,  the 
language  of  the  nation  and  not  of  the  governing 
race,  began  to  show  its  predilections,  to  set  up  its 
standard,  to  attract  the  notice  and  favour  of  men 
whose  imaginations  were  already  on  fire  and  craving 
for  utterance  ? 

Whilst  the  Schoolmen  were  struggling  bravely  but 
lamely  for  freedom  of  religious  life  and  thought,  the 
French  writers  of  fabliaux,  pastourelles,  and  love 
songs,  followed  by  the  German  minnesingers  and 
meistersingers,  broke  the  silence  to  which  poetic 
souls  had  long  been  condemned,  and  lightly  pre- 
luded the  nobler  strains  of  Dante  and  Petrarch. 
Higher  elevation  of  thought  and  language  it  was 
impossible  for  poet  to  attain  in  those  days  than  the 
height  attained  by  the  two  devout  Florentines, 
whose  poems,  religious  and  even  devotional  in  their 
tone,  largely  secularized  the  mood  and  phraseology 


1379]  Wyclif  Hie  Evangelist.  199 

of  religion  for  the  interpretation  of  human  interests 
and  passions.  Italy  was  naturally  ahead  of  other 
countries  in  the  dignity  and  suppleness  of  her  new 
literature,  for  Italian  and  the  Italians  had  been  hel- 
lenised  many  centuries  ago,  and  the  younger  race 
was  inheriting  the  intellectual  property  of  its  ances- 
tors. The  literature  of  the  northern  nations  was  of 
slower  growth,  and  their  hellenisation  was  yet  to 
come. 

Before  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  there 
was  little  or  nothing  in  England  which  could  be 
called  literature — no  Greek  at  all,  Latin  with  a  mere 
savour  of  latinity,  and  of  English  no  more  than  a 
few  rude  songs,  mainly  provincial  and  political,  a  few 
still  ruder  miracle  plays,  and  a  handful  of  hazardous 
translations  from  the  Latin  or  French.  It  is  true 
that  as  early  as  1327  William  of  Shoreham  had  made 
his  English  version  of  the  Psalms ;  and  not  long 
afterwards  the  hermit  Rolle  of  Hampole  made  an- 
other version,  followed  by  a  didactic  poem,  The 
Pricke  of  Conscience.  But  Wyclif  was  a  middle- 
aged  man  before  Chaucer — indebted,  like  himself,  to 
the  protection  and  good-will  of  the  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster— translated  The  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  and  pro- 
duced, in  Anglo-Norman  amalgam,  The  Court  of 
Love. 

John  Wyclif  may  or  may  not  have  had  all  these 
English  manuscripts,  and  others  which  succeeded 
them,  under  his  notice,  at  one  time  or  another  in  his 
active  intellectual  life.  That  he  read  some  of  them, 
the  Psalms,  the  Pricke  of  Conscience,  the  Again- 
bite,    the    translation  of    the    Manuel    des    Ptche's, 


200  John  Wyclif.  [1360- 

and  the  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman  is  most  prob- 
able ;  for  copies  would  surely  be  at  Oxford,  and  such 
as  were  not  there  he  would  hardly  fail  to  see  in  Lon- 
don. It  would  be  rash,  however,  to  assume  that  the 
ardent  devotee  of  scholastic  theology,  the  earnest- 
minded  student  whose  ambition  was  to  earn  distinc- 
tion amongst  the  secular  clergy,  the  prominent 
ecclesiastic  whose  soul  was  immersed  in  the  stern 
realities  of  the  day,  was  attracted  to  any  sort  of 
profane  writing  outside  the  limits  of  religious  expo- 
sition and  devotion.  There  is  little  evidence  in  his 
own  writings  of  a  taste  for  dealing  with  lighter 
topics,  or  for  greater  freedom  of  imagination  and 
treatment.  On  the  other  hand,  this  is  not  what  we 
should  expect  to  find  in  connection  with  the  serious 
controversies  in  which  he  was  engaged.  We  know 
that  Wyclif  was  a  bright  and  pleasant  companion  in 
everyday  life  and  at  the  table,  for  his  enemies 
twisted  it  into  a  charge  against  him.  There  is  no 
reason  why  he  should  not  have  read  the  diverting 
fables  of  Sir  John  Mandeville,  or  even  some  of  the 
sugared  lays  and  translations  of  the  courtly  Chaucer. 
It  is  not  out  of  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  he 
should  have  seen  before  he  died  one  or  more  of  the 
stories  which  Chaucer  subsequently  collected  in  the 
Canterbury  Tales. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  there  is  no  room  for  doubting 
that  Wyclif  had  pored  over  the  manuscripts  at 
Balliol  and  Merton,  and  the  costly  treasures  of 
Bishop  Aungervile,  better  known  as  Richard  de 
Bury,  lately  removed  for  safe  keeping  to  Durham 
College,  hard  by  Balliol,  where  two  centuries  nearer 


1379]  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  201 

to  our  own  time  the  foundations  of  Trinity  were  to 
be  laid.  In  one  or  other  of  these  calm  retreats  he 
would  find  sundry  versions  and  paraphrases  of  sacred 
history,  more  or  less  fragmentary,  more  or  less  freely 
rendered  by  monks  or  clerks  of  the  northern  or 
western  shires,  of  the  midlands  or  the  south-east. 
One  such  manuscript,  the  Cursor  Mundi,  produced 
about  the  time  of  Wyclif  s  birth,  and  soon  widely 
popular  as  a  metrical  version  of  Bible  history,  would 
certainly  be  found  at  Oxford,  together  with  sermons 
in  English,  and  Scripture  stories  in  verse  which  were 
occasionally  read  in  the  churches. 

Wyclif,  it  must  be  confessed,  would  have  fair 
reason  to  think  that  the  partial  translations  of  the 
Bible  which  had  been  made  up  to  his  own  day  could 
be  improved  upon  without  much  difficulty.  When 
they  were  not  intended  as  mere  service-books,  which 
was  the  case  with  the  different  versions  of  the 
Psalms,  these  Scriptural  paraphrases  had  the  charac- 
ter of  story-books  for  diversion.  No  serious  attempt 
had  been  made  to  turn  the  whole  of  Scripture,  or 
even  the  New  Testament,  into  an  accurate  English 
equivalent.  The  prejudice  against  such  a  proceed- 
ing was  too  strong  to  be  lightly  faced  ;  it  was  com- 
mon to  all  Christendom,  and  has  never  been  over- 
come in  countries  which  have  adhered  to  the  Latin 
rfte.  Wyclif  was  prepared  to  face  it,  but  he  felt  it 
necessary,  as  we  have  seen,  to  justify  and  explain  his 
action  with  considerable  deliberation.  He  cannot 
have  entertained  any  delusions  as  to  the  reception 
which  his  English  Bible  would  meet  with  from  the 
ecclesiastical   authorities,  and   from  the  seculars  and 


202  John  Wyclif.  L1360- 

regulars  who  prided  themselves  most  upon  their 
orthodoxy.  If,  as  is  likely  enough,  he  had  nursed 
the  idea  of  his  translation  from  a  comparatively 
early  age,  it  may  well  have  been  that  his  denuncia- 
tion as  a  heretic  by  the  Pope,  and  Courtenay,  and 
the  friars,  finally  nerved  him  to  carry  out  his  half- 
formed  intentions. 

It  was  a  bold  venture  in  every  way.  Wyclif  was 
more  the  cleric  than  the  man  of  letters,  and,  great 
as  were  his  services  in  promoting  the  formal  and 
academic  use  of  his  mother  tongue,  in  clearing  and 
widening  the  sources  of  what  was  soon  to  become  a 
broad  and  limpid  stream,  and  in  cutting  as  it  were 
the  matrix  of  the  type  in  which  the  English  Bible 
was  to  be  printed  and  perpetuated  for  all  time,  there 
is  assuredly  no  necessity  to  claim  for  him  the  laurels 
of  literary  excellence. 

That  which  especially  connects  Wyclif  with  the 
course  of  English  literature  and  the  development  of 
the  English  language  is  the  fact  that  the  moment  of 
his  arrival  at  maturity — maturity  as  a  man,  as  a  re- 
ligious thinker,  as  a  political  seer,  and  as  a  social  in- 
novator— coincided  with  the  definitive  triumph  of 
the  English  tongue.  Long  despised  by  the  Norman 
Court  and  aristocracy,  from  the  French  queens  and 
their  favourites  down  to  the  humblest  hanger-on  of 
the  ruling  classes,  and  equally  despised  by  the  clergy, 
monks,  friars,  and  lawyers,  whose  debased  Latin 
was  their  only  current  coin  of  speech,  the  language 
of  our  English  forefathers  suddenly,  almost  dra- 
matically, stood  forth  as  the  dominant  tongue  in 
every  department  of  the  national  life.      The  formal 


13791  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  203 

re-instatement  of  English  was  a  jubilee  gift  which 
Edward  gave  to  his  country  in  1 362,  when  Parliament 
ordered  legal  pleadings  to  be  conducted  in  the  popu- 
lar speech,  on  the  ground  that  French  was  "  much 
unknown."  The  date  of  this  statute  may  be  taken 
as  the  first  turning-point  of  the  English  language 
and  literature,  as  it  was  within  a  little  of  being  the 
turning-point  of  religion  in  England.  The  change 
itself,  to  be  sure,  had  not  been  so  sudden  as  its 
formal  sanction  was  striking  and  authoritative.  The 
mass  of  the  people,  it  need  not  be  said,  had  always 
spoken  English — a  varying  and  undigested  English, 
without  standard  or  model  for  three  hundred  years, 
in  one  part  favouring  a  German  type,  in  another 
French,  and  in  some  cases  even  tending  to  a  sort 
of  spurious  latinisation,  but  still  essentially  the  Eng- 
lish of  Alfred  and  Edward  and  Harold. 

It  is  impossible  without  a  vigorous  effort  of  the 
imagination  to  realise  the  condition  of  our  ancestors 
between  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  and  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth,  divided  as  they  were  in 
heart  and  sympathy  from  the  ruling  race  by  this 
most  effectual  of  all  barriers,  and  thrown  back  upon 
themselves  not  only  in  matters  connected  with  law 
and  government,  but  also,  as  it  must  have  been  to  a 
very  large  extent,  in  religion  and  social  life.  Every- 
one remembers  the  patriotic  complaint,  that  "  chil- 
dren in  school,  against  the  use  and  manner  of  all 
other  nations,  be  compelled  for  to  leave  their  own 
language  and  for  to  construe  their  lessons  and  their 
things  in  French  ;  and  so  they  have  since  Normans 
first  came  to  England."      There  must  have  been  the 


204  John  Wyclif.  [1360 

same  jealous  feeling  in  regard  to  the  preference  given 
to  the  Norman-French  at  Court,  in  public  offices  of 
all  kinds,  and  in  trials  at  law,  as  well  as  to  the  use  of 
Latin  in  religious  services.  It  is  easy  to  conceive 
the  wonderful  reaction  which  would  follow  the 
adoption  of  English  where  French  had  formerly  been 
used,  and  the  definite  recognition  of  the  national 
tongue  for  almost  every  public  purpose.  And  no- 
where would  the  reaction  and  relief  be  greater  than 
in  the  religious  domain,  when  Wyclif  s  Poor  Priests 
brought  the  gospel  home  to  the  poor,  and  "  monk- 
ish Latin  "  gave  place  to  the  English  Bible. 

Wyclif's  prose  was  a  little  more  scholastic  than 
Mandeville's,  and  takes  more  of  an  academic  charac- 
ter from  the  original  text  out  of  which  it  was 
translated.  It  is  true  that  Mandeville's  work  is  a 
translation,  as  he  expressly  states,  for  he  seems  to 
have  made  his  first  observations  in  Latin.  "  Ye 
shall  understand,"  he  says,  "  that  I  have  put  this 
book  out  of  Latin  into  French,  and  translated  it 
again  out  of  French  into  English,  that  every  man 
of  my  nation  may  understand  it."  But  a  version 
from  the  Latin  Vulgate  was  not  likely  to  be  so 
free  or  supple  as  a  traveller's  version  from  his 
own  Latin  text. 

Before  taking  a  few  samples  of  Wyclif's  English, 
it  may  be  interesting  to  quote  a  short  passage  from 
The  Voiage  and  Travaile  of  Mandeville,  in  order 
that  the  style  of  these  two  pioneers  of  written  prose 
may  be  compared.  Evidently  the  language  which 
they  wrote  was  the  familiar  language  spoken  by 
educated  Englishmen  of  their  day,  with  this  distinc- 


13791  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  205 

tion,  that  the  writers  were  three-tongued  men,  who 
more  or  less  pedantically  used  new-fangled  words 
from  the  Latin  and  French,  whereas  the  English 
speakers  who  knew  no  Latin  would  allow  a  marked 
predominance  to  French  or  to  English  types,  accord- 
ing to  their  descent  and  early  associations. 

"  For  als  moche,"  Mandeville  writes,  "  as  it  is  longe 
tyme  passed  that  there  was  no  generalle  passage  ne 
vyage  over  the  see,  and  many  men  desiren  for  to 
here  speke  of  the  holy  lond,  and  han  therof  gret 
solace  and  comfort ;  I  John  Maundevylle,  Knyght, 
alle  be  it  I  be  not  worthi,  that  was  born  in  Englond, 
in  the  town  of  Seynt  Albones,  passede  the  see  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  Jhesu  Christ  MCCCXXII,  in  the 
day  of  Seynt  Michelle  ;  and  hidreto  have  ben  longe 
tyme  over  the  see,  and  have  seyn  and  gon  thorghe 
manye  dyverse  londes,  and  many  provynces  and 
kingdomes  and  iles  .  .  .  where  dwellen  many 
dyverse  folkes,  and  of  dyverse  maneres  and  lawes, 
and  of  dyverse  schappes  of  men." 

It  is  almost  entirely  a  matter  of  spelling  whether 
this  language  is  plain  and  simple  to  us  or  not.  In 
most  essentials  the  three-tongued  men  of  the  four- 
teenth century  spoke  and  wrote  the  colloquial 
speech  of  to-day. 

Wyclif's  Bible,  though  it  occupied  several  hands, 
is  fairly  homogeneous  throughout.  Probably  the 
whole  of  it  passed  under  his  review  ;  and  moreover 
the  complete  text  was  subsequently  revised  by 
Purvey,  who  had  been  his  fellow-worker  from  the 
beginning.  But  we  are  most  certain  to  find  Wyclif's 
English  in  the  Gospels,  which  were  his  special  and 


206  John  Wyclif.  [1360 

original  charge.  In  them  alone  we  shall  find  suffi- 
cient evidence,  apart  from  external  knowledge,  that 
the  Wyclif  Bible  was  translated  from  the  Latin  Vul- 
gate, that  the  translator  had  at  least  some  little 
acquaintance,  if  only  at  second  hand,  with  Greek, 
that  his  constant  aim  was  to  make  his  version  clear 
and  simple  for  the  simplest  English  folk,  that  with 
this  aim  he  added  glosses  where  it  occurred  to  him 
that  the  text  required  them,  that  his  vocabulary  was 
plentifully  recruited  from  the  French,  though  to 
nothing  like  the  same  degree  as  the  language  of  his 
contemporary  Chaucer,  and  that  so  far  as  Wyclif's 
English  was  provincial  it  had  certain  characteristic 
elements  of  the  Northern  dialect.  There  is  also  a 
distinct  impression  of  pedantry  in  Wyclif,  beyond 
what  we  find  in  the  prose  works  of  Chaucer  and 
Mandeville — though  the  Tale  of  Melibeus  and  the 
introduction  to  the  Voiage  and  Travaile  are  quite 
pedantic  enough  to  have  been  written  by  theo- 
logians. Wyclif  is  extremely  literal,  and  nurses  the 
Latin  constructions  of  the  Vulgate,  at  the  cost  of  oc- 
casional vagueness.  All  these  points  are  illustrated 
in  the  following  passages — in  which  the  only  moderni- 
sation of  spelling  is  the  use  of  the  later  characters 
g,  g/i,  thy  v,  and  y. 

"  And  Marye  seyde,  My  soule  worschipe  the 
Lord,  and  my  spirit  joiede  in  God  myn  heelpe. 

"  For  he  lokide  the  mekenes  of  his  hondmayden  ; 
lo  forwhi  of  that,  blisful  me  schulyen  seyn  alle  gen- 
eraciouns. 

"  For  he  hath  do  to  me  grete  thingis  that  mighti 
is,  and  his  name  holy. 


13791  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  20 7 

"  And  the  mercy  of  him  fro  kinredis  into  kynredis, 
to  tho  that  dreeden  him. 

"  He  dyde  myght  in  his  arm  ;  he  scateride  the 
proude  fro  the  thought  of  his  herte. 

"  He  putte  doun  the  myghti  of  seete,  and  he 
highede  the  meke. 

u  The  hungrynge  he  fillide  with  goodis,  and  the 
riche  he  lefte  empty. 

"  He  resseyvede  Israel  his  child  ;  he  thoughte  of 
his  mercy. 

"Ashe  spak  to  oure  fadris,  to  Abraham  and  to 
his  seed  into  worldis." 

"  And  he,  gon  out,  biganne  to  preche,  and  diffame, 
or publishe,  the  word." 

u  He  blasfemeth  ;  who  may  forgeve  synnes,  no-but 
God  alone  ?  The  whiche  thing  anoon  knowen  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,  for  thei  thoughten  so  withinne  hem- 
self,  Jhesus  seith  to  hem,  what  thenken  yee  these 
thingis  in  youre  hertis?  " 

"  And  whenne  he  passide,  he  saw  Levi  Alfey 
sittynge  at  the  tolbothe,  and  he  seith  to  hym,  Sue 
thou  me.     And  he  rysynge  suede  hym." 

"  No  man  seweth  a  pacche  of  rude  or  newe  clothe 
to  an  old  clothe,  ellis  he  takith  awey  the  newe  sup- 
plement, or  pacche,  and  a  more  brekynge  is  maad. 
And  no  man  sendith  newe  wyn  in  to  oolde  botelis, 
or  wyn  vesselis,  ellis  the  wyn  shal  berste  the  wyn 
vesselis,  and  the  wyn  shal  be  held  out." 

"  And  thei  hav  nat  roote  in  hemsilf,  but  thei  ben 
temporal,  that  is,  lasten  a  lityl  tyme  ;  afterward  tribu- 
lacioun  sprongen  up,  and  persecucioun  for  the  word, 
anoon  thei  ben  sclaundrid." 


208  John  Wyclif.  [1360 

"  As  a  corn  of  seneveye,  the  which  whann  it  is 
sowun  in  the  erthe  is  lesse  than  alle  seedis  that  ben 
in  erthe  ;  and  whanne  it  is  bredd,  or  quykened,  it 
stygheth  up  in  to  a  tree,  and  is  maad  more  than  alle 
wortis,  or  erbis  ;  and  it  shal  make  grete  braunchis,  so 
that  briddis  of  hevene  mowe  dwelle  undir  the 
shadewe  therof." 

"  Sothly  Jhesus  resceyved  hym  nat,  but  seith  to 
hym,  Go  thou  in  to  thin  hous  to  thine,  and  telle  to 
hem  how  many  thingis  the  Lord  hath  don  to  thee, 
and  hadde  mercy  of  thee.  And  he  wente  forth,  and 
bigan  for  to  preche  in  Decapoly,  that  is,  a  cuntree  of 
ten  citees." 

"  Yit  him  spekynge,  messageris  camen  to  the  prince 
of  synagoge,  seyinge,  For  thi  doughtir  is  deed ; 
what  traveilist  thou  the  maistir  ferthere  ?  Forsothe 
the  word  herd  that  was  seide,  Jhesus  seith  to  the 
prince  of  the  synagoge,  Nyle  thou  drede,  oonly 
byleve  thou." 

"And  anon  he  spek  with  hem,  and  seide  to  hem, 
Triste  ye,  I  am  ;  nyle  ye  drede." 

"  And  aftir  sixe  dayes  Jhesus  took  Petre,  and 
James,  and  John,  and  ledith  hem  by  hem  selve  aloone 
in  to  an  high  hil ;  and  he  is  transfigurid  byfore  hem. 
And  his  clothis  ben  maad  schynynge  and  white  ful 
moche  as  snow,  and  which  maner  clothis  a  fullere, 
or  walkere  of  cloth,  may  not  make  white  on  erthe. 
And  Helye  with  Moyses  apperide  to  hem,  and  thei 
weren  spekynge  with  Jhesu." 

"  Forsothe  of  the  fyge  tree  lerne  ye  the  parable. 
Whanne  nowhisbraunche  schal  be  tendre,  and  leevys 
ben  sprongen  out,  ye  witen  for  somer  is  in  the  nexte. 


1379]  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  209 

So  and  whanne  ye  schulen  se  alle  these  thingis  been 
maad,  wite  ye  that  it  is  in  the  nexte,  in  the  doris. 
Treuly  I  seye  to  you,  for  this  generacioun  schal  not 
passe  awey,  til  alle  these  thingis  be  don.  Hevene 
and  erthe  schal  passe,  forsothe  my  wordis  schulen 
not  passe.  Treuly  of  that  day  or  our  no  man  woot, 
neithir  aungelis  in  hevene,  neithir  the  sone,  nobut 
the  fadif." 

At  some  date  which  it  is  not  possible  to  determine, 
Wyclif  composed  a  number  of  sermons  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Sunday  Gospels.  The  title  which  he  gave 
to  the  book  was  The  Sonedai  Gospelis,  Expowncd  in 
Partie,  and  these  discourses  (collected  and  published 
with  others  in  1382)  are  not  so  much  sermons  as 
skeletons,  which  a  preacher  might  readily  clothe 
with  additional  words  and  thoughts  of  his  own.  It 
is  highly  probable  that  Wyclif  prepared  some  homi- 
lies of  this  kind  for  the  use  of  his  Poor  Priests,  to 
the  less  eloquent  of  whom  they  would  manifestly  be 
a  great  assistance.  They  include  occasional  direc- 
tions for  preachers,  which  could  not  be  verbally 
repeated  to  a  congregation.  Here,  for  instance,  is 
the  concluding  paragraph  of  the  sermon  for  the  first 
Sunday  after  Trinity — the  Gospel  for  the  day  relating 
to  Lazarus  and  Dives. 

"  In  this  Gospel  may  preestis  telle  of  fals  pride  of 
riche  men,  and  of  lustful  lyf  of  myghty  men  of  this 
worlde,  and  of  longe  peynes  of  helle,  and  joyful  blis 
in  hevene,  and  thus  lengthe  their  sermoun  as  the 
tyme  axith.  And  marke  we  how  this  gospel  tellith 
that  this  riche  man  was  not  dampned  for  extorsioun 
or  wrong  that  he  dide  to  his  neighbore,  but  for  he 


210  John  Wyclif.  ri360 

failide  in  werkes  of  mercy  ;  and  thus  shulde  we  warne 
both  o  man  and  other  how  sum  men  shall  be 
dampnyd  more  felly  for  raveyne,  and  sum  shal  be 
dampnyd  more  softly,  for  misusinge  of  Goddis 
goodis." 

The  frank  courage  of  the  writer  is  stamped  on  all 
his  sermons,  and  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  the 
outcry  would  arise,  even  amongst  the  secular  clergy, 
against  himself  and  the  men  whom  he  sent  forth  to 
preach.  For  in  the  mildest  of  these  discourses  there 
is  no  respect  of  persons,  and  neither  Pope  nor  prelate, 
priest  nor  monk,  is  spared  when  he  neglects  his  office 
for  his  own  gain  or  convenience.  On  the  fourth 
Sunday  after  Trinity,  the  Gospel  dealing  with  the 
mote  and  the  beam,  we  have  the  following  suggestion : 

"  Here  may  men  see  that  sugettis  shulden  blame 
prelatis  when  they  seen  opynly  greet  defaultes  in 
hem,  as  defaulte  of  Goddis  lawe  in  keeping  and 
teeching ;  for  this  is  a  beeme  bi  which  the  fende 
bindeth  his  hous,  and  thei  shulden  knowe  thes  as 
thei  shulden  fele  the  lore  (loss)  thereof." 

Wyclif  began  to  preach  sermons  in  English  in 
1 361,  if  not  earlier,  and  it  is  possible  that  some  of 
the  discourses  in  "  The  Sunday  Gospels  "  were  pre- 
pared at  Fillingham,  or  at  Ludgarshall.  Others 
smack  more  of  controversy,  and  deal  so  roundly  with 
the  religious  Orders  in  particular  that  a  considerably 
later  date  must  be  assigned  to  them.  Thus  in  the 
sermon  for  the  sixteenth  Sunday  after  Trinity  there 
is  a  sharp  touch  for  the  Pope  and  the  Orders. 

u  We  shulden  bewar  of  peril  of  ypocrisie,  for  many 
feynen  hem  in  statis,  and  done  reverse  in  her  lyf, 


13791  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  211 

and  yit  thei  seien  thei  ben  perfiter  than  waren  the 
first  clerkis  of  Crist.  And  thus  enemyes  of  Cristis 
religioun  chalengen  to  be  of  his  Ordre,  algif  they 
done  even  the  contrarie  to  name  that  thei  beren  ;  as 
the  Pope  shulde  be  moost  meke  man,  moost  servys- 
able  and  moost  pore,  as  we  ben  taught  in  Seint  Petir, 
that  was  Pope  next  after  Crist.  And  now  men  seyen 
that  the  Pope  mote  nedis  reverse -this  ordenaunce, 
and  have  more  power  for  to  do  thingis  that  touchen 
excellence  ;  and  thus  bishopis  that  shulden  be  clerkis 
and  pore  men,  as  apostlis  weren,  ben  moost  lordis  of 
this  world,  and  reversen  apostlis  lyf.  Sum  tyme 
weren  mounkes  lewede  men,  as  seintis  in  Jerusalem  ; 
and  thanne  thei  kept  him  silf  fro  synne,  as  seynt 
Bernard  berith  witnesse,  but  now  monkes  ben  turned 
into  lordis  of  this  worlde  most  ydel  in  Goddis 
travaile,  and  seyen  that  thei  ben  betre  monkes  than 
weren  the  first  seintis.  And  so  freris,  that  weren 
bretheren  in  Crist,  and  not  chargeous  to  the  Chirche, 
neither  in  noumbre  ne  in  clothing,  ne  in  mete  ne  in 
housynge,  ben  even  turned  agen  fro  the  first  lyf  of 
hem,  and  yet  bi  ther  ypocrisie  thei  blynden  the 
Chirche  many  gatis,  and  thus  names  of  offices  and 
names  of  virtues  also  ben  changed  bi  ypocrisie,  and 
cursed  men  reulen  the  world." 

It  will  be  convenient  here  to  add  a  few  words  on  the 
other  English  works  of  Wyclif,  known  or  alleged  to 
be  his.  It  may  be  said  at  once  that  there  are  many 
manuscripts  of  the  fourteenth  century  which  we 
are  unable  with  any  degree  of  confidence  to  assign 
to   their   true   authors ;   and  this  general   statement 


212  John  Wyclif.  U360- 

applies  to  the  works  of  Wyclif  amongst  others. 
More  than  seventy  distinct  English  works,  over  and 
above  the  Latin  documents  and  treatises  which  are 
historically  connected  with  him,  have  at  different 
times  been  ascribed  to  him.  Indeed  Bishop  Bale 
brought  up  the  number  of  his  Latin  and  English 
works  to  something  like  three  hundred ;  but  he 
did  not  claim  to  have  seen  them  all,  and  still  less 
did  he  insist  on  their  authenticity. 

The  fact  of  the  matter  seems  to  have  been  that  the 
attempts  which  were  made  to  suppress  the  writings 
of  Wyclif  and  the  Lollards,  and  which  in  some  in- 
stances succeeded,  led  to  the  concealment  of  many 
manuscripts  by  their  possessors,  whether  in  England 
or  across  the  seas,  without  preserving  any  detailed 
account  of  their  origin  or  authorship.  When  the 
age  of  sense  or  freedom  returned,  and  it  became 
possible  to  bring  these  treasures  to  the  light,  there 
would  naturally  be  a  disposition  to  claim  them  all  as 
Wyclif's,  whereas  a  considerable  number  may  have 
been  the  works  of  Nicholas  Hereford,  of  Purvey, 
John  Aston,  and  other  Wycliffites.  There  are,  in- 
deed, comparatively  few  cases  in  which  the  original 
manuscript  bears  an  inscription  of  such  a  kind  as  to 
settle  its  authorship  beyond  dispute. 

If  we  were  to  proceed  strictly  and  sceptically  in 
regard  to  these  works,  and  especially  if  we  were  to 
refuse  Wyclif  the  credit  of  any  which  are  not  his  by 
unquestionable  evidence,  he  would  in  fact  be  left 
with  a  somewhat  meagre  array.  But  on  that  phn 
we  should  certainly  lose  some  of  his  genuine  produc 
tions;   and  of  the   two-score    English  works  which 


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A  PAGE  FROM  THE  PLESHY  BIBLE  (WYCLIF'S). 

OWNED    BY   THOMAS    OF   WOODSTOCK,    DUKE   OF   GLOUCESTER,   SON    OF    EDWARD    III. 

Egerton  MSS.,  British.  Museum^  reduced  to  about  one-third  linear. 


1379]  Wyclif  the  Evangelist,  2 1 3 

recent  students,  after  repeated  siftings,  have  still 
associated  with  his  name,  we  may  be  well  content  to 
cling  for  the  present  to  every  one,  so  long  as  no  con- 
clusive proof  is  brought  forward  on  behalf  of  another 
author. 

It  was  in  1865  that  Dr.  Shirley,  then  Professor  of 
Ecclesiastical  History  at  Oxford,  printed  his  Cata- 
logue of  the  Original  Works  of  .John  Wyclif — of 
which  he  enumerated  ninety-six  in  Latin  and  sixty- 
five  in  English.  In  the  following  year  he  proposed 
to  the  Delegates  of  the  University  Press  "  to  prepare 
for  publication  selected  English  works  of  Wyclif  in 
three  volumes,"  and  with  the  sanction  of  the  Dele- 
gates he  engaged  Mr.  Thomas  Arnold  to  edit  the 
selection.  Dr.  Shirley  died  soon  after  this  arrange- 
ment had  been  made,  and  he  was  therefore  unable 
to  mature  his  views  with  regard  to  the  authenticity 
and  chronology  of  the  writings  which  had  been  as- 
signed to  Wyclif.  The  Catalogue  of  1865,  whilst  it 
very  largely  reduced  the  lists  of  Bale  and  Lewis,  and 
showed  an  advance  upon  the  knowledge  of  Vaughan, 
Todd,  and  others,  was  confessedly  tentative,  and 
there  are  several  numbers  in  respect  of  which  the 
compiler  was  more  than  doubtful.  Acting  on  Dr. 
Shirley's  hints  Mr.  Arnold,  in  the  introduction  to 
his  Select  English  Works  of  John  Wyclif  (1869- 
1871)  reduced  the  list  of  authentic  works  to  forty- 
one,  whereof  he  printed  the  greater  number. 

The  tendency  of  this  selection  and  restriction  was 
evidently  on  the  right  lines.  Many  manuscripts  had 
been  dealt  with  by  earlier  writers  on  hearsay  only, 
or  with  a  knowledge  of  no  more  than  the  first  few 


2  14  John  Wyclif.  H360- 


words.  Shirley  and  Arnold  examined  them  more 
carefully,  and  weeded  out  a  considerable  number,  of 
which  it  is  possible  to  say  definitely  that,  whoever  may 
have  written  them,  John  Wyclif  did  not.  Mr.  F.  D. 
Matthew,  in  1880,  edited  for  the  Early  English  Text 
Society  The  English  Works  of  Wyclif  Hitherto  Un- 
printed,  including  (for  reasons  which  appeared 
sufficient  to  him)  sundry  tracts  already  rejected,  or 
relegated  to  a  "  doubtful  "  class.  The  three  books 
just  mentioned  may  be  said  to  have  prepared  the 
way  for  a  thoroughly  critical  edition  of  the  English 
writings  of  Wyclif.  But  it  is  questionable  if  in  any 
case  a  canon  of  authenticity  could  be  set  up  which 
would  be  universally  accepted  by  those  who  are 
competent  to  form  an  opinion. 

Mr.  Arnold's  reduced  list  of  forty-one  "  probably 
genuine  "  English  works  includes  a  large  collection 
of  sermons  on  the  Sunday  Gospels  and  Epistles,  and 
on  the  Gospels  for  saints'  days,  together  with  exegeti- 
cal  works  on  the  Canticles  and  other  items  of  the 
service-books ;  tracts  on  the  heresies  and  errors  of 
the  Friars,  on  the  Eucharist,  on  the  Apostasy  of  the 
clergy,  on  the  Schism  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs,  on 
Church  Temporalities  and  the  condition  of  the  clergy, 
with  sundry  letters,  statements,  and  petitions  such  as 
will  be  found  quoted  or  referred  to  in  the  present 
volume. 

The  manuscripts  on  which  we  have  to  rely  in  the 
last  resort  for  the  authenticity  of  Wyclif's  works  are 
fairly  numerous,  at  any  rate  for  the  sermons.  Eigh- 
teen or  twenty,  in  the  libraries  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge,  or  in  public   or  private   libraries  elsewhere, 


1379 1  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  2 1 5 

were  collated  for  Mr.  Arnold's  edition.  They  are 
dated  (by  internal  evidence  rather  than  by  continu- 
ous description  from  their  origin  onwards)  as  belong- 
ing to  the  later  years  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
various  periods  of  the  fifteenth.  The  same  descrip- 
tion applies  to  the  sixteen  or  more  manuscripts  from 
which  the  tracts  and  miscellaneous  works  are  taken — 
manuscripts  preserved  in  the  Bodleian  and  other  uni- 
versity libraries,  and  in  the  Harleian  and  Cottonian 
collections  at  the  British  Museum.  The  difficulties 
of  deducing  positive  belief  from  the  evidence  afforded 
by  these  manuscripts  are  various.  Experts  in 
palaeography  can  go  a  long  way  towards  fixing  the 
date  of  any  particular  manuscript,  so  as  to  make  us 
fairly  confident  that  we  know  the  time  of  its  produc- 
tion within  a  few  decades.  But  even  when  we  are 
assured  that  such  and  such  a  volume  of  manuscript 
was  the  work  of  a  copyist  who  lived  about  the  close 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  we  may  not  have  made  any 
great  advance  towards  a  definite  conclusion.  The 
volume  itself,  and  the  separate  tracts  of  which  it  is 
composed,  may  be  without  title  or  preface,  and 
without  collateral  evidence  of  any  sort  ;  and  there 
are  certainly  cases  where  collections  of  distinct 
works  were  attributed  to  Wyclif  in  the  fifteenth 
century  though  it  is  manifest  on  closer  inquiry  that 
more  authors  than  one  were  responsible  for  them. 
It  is  conceivable  that  either  the  copyist  or  the  col- 
lector may  have  too  lightly  brought  together  the 
writings  of  different  people  ;  and  in  this  way  Wyclif 
has  received  credit  or  discredit  for  many  a  produc- 
tion of  his  contemporaries  or  immediate  successors. 


216  John  Wyclif,  [1360- 

The  writings  of  Wyclif  have  undergone  a  fate 
which  somewhat  curiously  recalls  the  history  of  Aris- 
totle's works  after  his  death.  Circumstances  con- 
spired to  bury  the  Metaphysics  and  Politics,  and  per- 
haps other  writings  of  Aristotle,  in  oblivion.  After 
more  than  two  centuries  they  were  re-discovered, 
brought  by  Apellicon  from  the  Troad  to  Athens,  and 
carried  thence  by  Sulla  to  Rome.  Then  they  dis- 
appeared again,  and  for  many  centuries  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  Stagyrite  was  preserved  for  Europe  by 
the  scholars  of  Syria,  Arabia,  and  other  Mahomedan 
lands.  Moreover  the  earlier  disciples  of  Aristotle 
wrote  Aristotelian  discourses  on  a  variety  of  sub- 
jects, some  of  which  have  been  or  may  yet  be 
accepted  as  genuine  works  of  the  master,  though 
it  would  be  idle  to  expect  unanimity  of  opinion 
amongst  scholars  in  every  particular  case. 

Most  of  what  has  been  said  of  Wyclif's  English 
writings  will  apply  equally  well  to  his  Latin  works. 
The  canon  is  undetermined,  and  perhaps,  so  far  as 
the  minor  tracts  are  concerned,  it  could  never  be 
definitely  established.  As  for  the  philosophical 
treatise  De  Esse,  the  De  Compositione  Hominis,  the 
De  Dominio  Divino,  De  Civili  Dominio,  and  De  Eccle- 
sia,  the  Trialogus,  the  De  Veritate  Sanctae  Scripturae, 
and  a  few  more,  in  which  we  find  autobiographical 
details,  or  on  which  controversies  arose  in  his  life- 
time, there  is  no  room  for  question ;  but  in  other 
cases  it  is  clear  that  Latin  writings  have  been  attribu- 
ted to  Wyclif  about  the  authenticity  of  which  it  is 
impossible  not  to  entertain  a  doubt. 

Amongst  the  English  works  which  have  been  gen- 


1379]  Wyclif  the  Evangelist.  217 

erally  attributed  to  Wyclif  is  one  which  was  first 
printe  din  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  in  the  year  1550. 
It  is  thus  described  on  the  title-page  :  "  The  true 
Copye  of  a  Prolog,  zvritten  about  two  hundred  years 
past  by  John  Wycliffe  .  .  .  the  Original  whereof 
is  found  written  in  an  old  English  Bible,  betwixt  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  New."  We  do  not  seem  to 
possess  any  better  evidence  of  the  authenticity  of 
this  Prologue  than  is  supplied  in  the  title  just 
quoted  ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  worthy 
Reformer  who  reproduced  it  was  somewhat  easily 
satisfied  on  the  point  of  authorship.  Unquestion- 
ably, if  we  could  accept  this  as  a  genuine  production 
of  Wyclif  it  would  possess  great  interest  and  value, 
as  being  descriptive  of  his  work  and  method  as  a 
translator  of  the  Bible.  But  neither  the  style  nor 
the  language  of  the  Prologue,  of  which  an  extract 
is  here  added  (with  the  spelling  modified),  will  war- 
rant us  in  agreeing  that  it  is  his  work. 

"  Though  covetous  clerks  are  mad  through  simony, 
heresy,  and  many  other  sins,  and  despise  and  impede 
Holy  Writ  as  much  as  they  can,  yet  the  unlearned 
people  cry  after  Holy  Writ  to  know  it,  with  great 
cost  and  peril  of  their  lives.  For  those  reasons  and 
other,  with  common  charity  to  save  all  men  in  our 
realm  which  God  will  have  saved,  a  simple  creature 
hath  translated  the  Bible  out  of  Latin  into  English. 
First  this  simple  creature  had  much  labour  with 
divers  companions  and  helpers  to  collect  many  old 
Bibles  and  other  doctors,  and  common  glosses,  and 
to  make  a  single  Latin  Bible  fairly  correct,  and  then 
to  study  it  anew,  the  text  with  the  commentary  and 


218  John  Wyclif.  [1379 

other  doctors,  as  he  could  obtain  them,  and  es- 
pecially Lire  (Nicolas  de  Lyra)  on  the  Old  Testament, 
who  gave  him  great  help  in  his  work.  Again  he  had 
to  take  counsel  with  old  grammarians  and  divines, 
concerning  hard  words  and  hard  sentences,  how  they 
might  best  be  understood  and  translated  ;  and  again, 
to  translate  as  clearly  as  he  could  according  to  the 
sentence  (meaning),  and  to  have  many  good  and 
skilful  companions  at  the  correcting  of  the  transla- 
tion." 

The  difficulty  of  assigning  this  Prologue  to  John 
Purvey,  as  some  have  done,  is  almost  as  great  as  that 
of  assigning  it  to  Wyclif.  It  certainly  affords  a 
good  instance  of  the  facility  with  which  early  manu- 
scripts have  at  different  times  been  attributed  to  the 
Evangelical  Doctor. 


ST.  MARY'S,  OXFORD. 

TOWER    PARTLY   CONTEMPORANEOUS   WITH   WYCLIF. 


<j>  ^  wj^r  „ 

^w# 

^^^^^H^I^MlBi 

#      js^ 

CHAPTER  XII. 


THE   DECISIVE   STEP. 


1  H  E  great  Schism  in  the  Roman 
Church,  followed  by  a  double 
line  of  Popes  between  the 
years  1378  and  141 5,  and  the 
division  of  Christendom  into 
two  camps,  with  two  hostile 
Supreme  Pontiffs  and  Vicars 
of  Christ,  was  evidently  a 
more  injurious  fact  for  Rome 
and  for  Christianity  than  the  long  sojourn  of  the 
Papacy  in  its  "  Babylonian  Captivity."  The  latter 
/act  had  in  itself  been  sufficiently  discrediting,  for, 
though  force  took  the  Popes  to  Avignon,  it  was 
demoralisation  rather  than  force  which  kept  them 
there.  But  the  Schism  was  infinitely  worse  than  the 
Captivity. 

It  only  needed  a  strong  and  startling  situation  such 
as  that  which  was  produced  by  this  Schism  to  strength- 

219 


220  John  Wyclif.  U378- 

en  the  convictions  and  courage  of  the  Oxford  Reform- 
ers, and  to  guarantee  the  continuance  of  the  revolt 
against  Rome.  For  twenty-seven  years  the  rulers  of 
the  Western  Church  fought  their  daily  battle  against 
catholicity  and  authority.  The  Schism  began,  con- 
tinued, and  ended  in  fatal  hostility  to  the  unity  of 
Christendom.  Gregory,  whose  bad  choice  of  time 
and  means  for  the  return  to  Rome  was  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  disaster,*  had  inaugurated  a  persecution 
which  ultimately  led  up  to  the  secession  of  the  Teu- 
tonic Churches.  The  Council  of  Constance,  sum- 
moned in  order  to  bring  the  Schism  to  an  end, 
cemented  a  new  union  with  the  blood  of  Huss  and 
Jerome,  and  signalised  it  by  the  desecration  of 
Wyclif's  grave. 

Gregory  died,  as  we  have  seen,  within  a  few  months 
of  his  ill-timed  return  to  the  Holy  City.  There  were 
sixteen  cardinals  at  Rome,  most  of  them  Frenchmen  ; 
but  under  pressure  from  the  turbulent  citizens  they 
elected  an  Italian  to  the  vacant  see.  Part  of  the 
papal  Court  had  remained  at  Avignon,  and  in  a  fatal 
moment  they  resolved  to  choose  a  French  Pontiff, 
and  to  ignore  the  Roman  selection.  National  jeal- 
ousies, to  which  the  Popes  had  so  often  appealed, 
declared  themselves  once  more.  Urban  VI.  was 
recognised  by  England,  most  of  the  Empire,-  Hun- 
gary, Bohemia,  and  Italy  ;  whilst  Clement  VII.  se- 
cured the  allegiance  of  France,  the  Spanish  kingdoms, 
Savoy,  and  a  few  of   the    German    states.     The  ap- 


*  The  Schism  might  have  been  averted  if  Gregory  had  refused 
to  migrate  without  the  entire  body  of  the  College  of  Cardinals. 
He  allowed  himself  to  be  hurried  to  Rome  by  Catherine  of  Siena. 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  2 2 1 

pointment  of  a  French  rival  drew  away  from  Rome 
all  the  cardinals  who  were  of  French  origin,  and 
Urban  immediately  created  twenty-six  more.  He 
is  said  to  have  offered  the  hat  to  Bishop  Courtenay 
amongst  others  ;  but  Courtenay  probably  remem- 
bered the  fate  of  Archbishop  Langham  twenty  years 
ago,  and  preferred  the  reversion  of  the  English 
primacy  to  a  forced  residence  at  Rome. 

The  long  and  lamentable  story  of  the  papal  Schism, 
of  the  bloodshed  and  abominations  of  various  kinds 
to  which  it  gave  birth,  and  of  the  effect  which  it 
produced  on  the  Western  Churches,  has  often  been 
written.  It  is  necessary  to  a  good  understanding  of 
any  epoch  of  ecclesiastical  history,  at  any  rate  within 
fifty  years  of  the  fatal  dissension,  that  the  reader 
should  see  each  particular  event  in  the  strong  relief 
created  by  this  pontifical  rivalry,  as  against  the  lurid 
and  glaring  background  of  a  coarsely  painted  picture. 
The  battles  of  the  Popes  and  the  recriminations  of 
their  supporters  were  daily  present  in  the  minds  and 
ears  of  all  men,  dominating  everything  which  they 
thought  and  said  and  did.  Foxe  cites  in  his  own 
language  a  passage  from  one  of  the  many  histories 
which  had  even  then  been  written  on  the  subject : 
"  As  touching  the  pestilent  and  most^  miserable 
Schisme,  it  would  require  heere  another  Iliade  to 
comprehend  in  order  all  the  circumstances  andtragi- 
call  parts  thereof,  what  trouble  in  the  whole  Church, 
what  parts  taken  in  every  countrey,  what  apprehend- 
ing and  imprisoning  of  priests  and  prelates,  taken  by 
land  and  sea,  what  shedding  of  blood  did  follow 
thereof.  .  .  what   cardinals  were  racked    and  miser- 


222  John  Wyclif.  M378- 

ablie  without  all  mercy  tormented  on  gibbets  to 
death,  what  slaughter  of  men,  what  battles  were 
fought  between  the  two  Popes,  whereof  five  thou- 
sand on  the  one  side  were  slaine." 

Whilst  the  whole  Church  was  scandalised  by  these 
disorders,  Wyclif  was  living  a  comparatively  quiet 
life  at  Oxford  and  Lutterworth,  and  devoting  himself 
to  congenial  but  arduous  labours.  So  far  as  can  be 
accurately  ascertained,  he  produced  a  large  majority 
of  his  works,  and  nearly  all  his  English  works,  in  the 
last  six  years  of  his  life.  It  was  indeed  the  four 
years  from  1378  to  1382  which  in  all  probability  saw 
the  publication  of  the  English  Bible,  the  sermons, 
one  or  two  of  the  more  interesting  Latin  works,  and 
a  series  of  English  tracts,  in  which  he  maintained  his 
unorthodox  opinions  with  greater  vigour  than  ever ; 
and  it  was  now  for  the  first  time  that  he  began  to 
express  doubts  of  the  accepted  theory  of  transub- 
stantiation.  This  particular  error,  more  grievous  to 
the  orthodox  people  of  his  day  than  any  other  which 
is  attributed  to  him,  was  not  one  of  the  conclusions 
enumerated  in  the  papal  bulls,  as  it  certainly  would 
have  been  if  he  had  given  his  enemies  the  slightest 
pretext  for  laying  it  to  his  charge.  But  in  1382  it 
was  placed,  in  the  front  of  his  fresh  condemnation  by 
Courtenay,  and  he  had  probably  given  utterance  to 
it  several  years  before  that — certainly,  as  we  shall 
see,  in  1381. 

It  was  one  of  the  regular  diversions  of  the  orthodox 
in  those  days,  and  indeed  for  two  or  three  genera- 
tions afterwards,  to  count  up  the  heresies  of  John 
Wyclif;  and,  as  Thomas  Fuller  drily  says,  they  were 


ARCHBISHOP  ARUNDEL. 

FROM    AN    OLD    PORTRAIT   IN    LAMBETH    FALACE. 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  223 

like  the  stones  on  Salisbury  Plain,  concerning  which 
there  is  a  proverb  that  no  two  men  can  count  them 
alike.  Thus  Pope  Gregory  in  his  bulls  made  them 
come  to  nineteen.  Courtenay  advanced  upon  that 
number  in  1382;  and  Archbishop  Arundel  strikes  one 
as  remarkably  moderate  in  stopping  short  at  twenty- 
three  errors,  of  which  he  reckons  only  ten  as  actually 
heretical.  Nevertheless  an  Oxford.Committee  under 
his  auspices,  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  Wyclif's 
death,  discovered  as  many  as  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven.  The  Council  of  Constance  enumerated  forty- 
five  ;  and  not  long  after  this  Netter  of  Walden  arrives 
at  a  round  fourscore.  The  orthodox  of  Bohemia 
had  a  still  keener  scent,  for  John  Liicke  jumped  up 
to  two  hundred  and  sixty-six,  whilst  Cocleus  (who 
wrote  a  history  of  the  Hussites)  detected  no  fewer 
than  three  hundred  and  three. 

No  one  helped  so  much  to  build  up  Wyclifs 
reputation  as  the  enemies  who  tried  to  write  him 
down ;  and  these  lists  of  his  heresies  are  really  very 
convenient  records  for  such  as  wish  to  see  the  more 
characteristic  opinions  of  the  Reformer  concisely 
stated.  If  we  take  Netter's  list  as  it  stands,  and 
bear  in  mind  that  it  is  in  the  nature  of  a  series  of 
allegations  made  by  a  writer  in  the  reign  of  Henry  V., 
who  distinctly  regarded  Wyclif  as  a  mischievous 
heretic,  we  shall  at  any  rate  know  the  worst  that  was 
brought  against  him. 

According  to  this  authority,  Wyclif  held  and 
taught  that  it  is  blasphemy  to  call  any  man  Head  of 
the  Church  save  Christ  alone  ;  or  that  Peter  had 
greater  power  than  the  other  apostles;  or  that  Rome 


224  John  Wyclif.  t137d- 

was  the  appointed  seat  of  Christ's  Vicar  ;  or  that 
the  Pope  is  to  be  considered  as  the  successor  of  Peter, 
except  in  so  far  as  he  imitates  Peter  and  Christ.  The 
infallibility  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in  matters  of  faith 
is  the  greatest  blasphemy  of  Antichrist.  Wyclif  called 
the  Pope  Antichrist,  and  "  the  abomination  of  desola- 
tion standing  in  the  holy  place  "  ;  but  with  respect 
to  this  common  charge  levelled  against  him  by  his 
enemies  it  may  be  observed  that,  though  he  was 
wont  now  and  then  to  apply  a  hard  term  to  the  doer 
of  a  wrong  action,  hypothetically  and  indirectly,  he 
nowhere  says  "  Gregory  is  Antichrist,"  or  "  Urban 
is  Antichrist."  What  he  said,  and  said  strongly  because 
his  convictions  were  strong,  every  one  of  his  critics 
must  have  said  if  they  could  have  been  taken  logically 
over  the  intermediate  steps.  But  let  us  continue 
the  record  of  heresy  according  to  Netter. 

The  benedictions,  confirmations,  consecrations  of 
churches  and  chalices,  and  other  such  acts  of  the 
bishops,  [when  done  at  a  price,  and  treated  as  con- 
tributing to  the  incomes  of  rich  men],  are  mere 
"  tricks  to  get  money."  Plain  deacons  or  priests  may 
lawfully  preach  without  having  the  licence  of  Pope 
or  bishop.  A  bishop  is  not  apostolically  different 
from  a  priest.  Absolution  [depends  entirely  on  re- 
pentance, and]  may  be  pronounced  by  a  layman  as  well 
as  by  a  priest.  The  clergy  ought  not  to  be  pre- 
vented from  marrying  [but  celibacy  is  the  highest 
kind  of  life].  Priests  of  evil  life  cease  to  be  effective 
priests  [but  Wyclif  said  :  "  A  cursed  man  doth  fully 
the  sacraments,  though  it  be  to  his  own  damning; 
for  they  be  not  authors  of  these  sacraments,  but  God 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  225 

keepeth  that  divinity  to  himself"].  The  Church 
consists  only  of  such  as  are  predestinated.  The 
Church  had  no  immovable  goods  before  the  time  of 
Constantine  ;  and  it  is  no  sacrilege  for  the  State  to 
take  for  its  own  needs  the  temporal  goods  of  the 
Church.  There  is  a  savour  of  hypocrisy  in  the 
beautiful  buildings  and  decorations  of  the  Church. 
Tithes  are  to  be  considered  as  pure  alms,  and  ought 
not  to  be  extorted  by  censures  ;  parishioners  would 
do  well  not  to  pay  tithe  at  all  to  dissolute  priests. 
Whatever  is  not  plainly  expressed  and  enjoined  in 
the  Scriptures  is  irrelevant  and  impertinent.  Many 
of  the  ecclesiastical  teachers  since  the  completion 
of  the  first  millennium  of  Christianity  were  heretical. 
It  is  vain  for  laymen  to  bargain  for  the  prayers  of 
priests.  There  is  no  superiority  in  set  prayers 
repeated  by  a  priest  ;  men  should  trust  rather  in 
personal  holiness.  The  alms  of  the  Church  should 
be  refused  to  persons  living  in  open  sin. 

With  regard  to  the  sacraments,  it  was  alleged 
against  Wyclif  that  he  spoke  slightingly  of  the  act 
of  chrism,  and  denied  the  absolute  necessity  of  bap- 
tism, which,  he  said,  does  not  confer  grace,  but  only 
symbolises  a  grace  given  before.  It  is  idolatry  to 
worship  the  host ;  the  bread  and  wine  remain  just 
what  they  were  before  consecration.  God  could  not 
make  his  natural  body  exist  in  two  places  at  once. 
Confirmation  is  not  necessary  to  salvation.  Confession 
of  sins  to  a  priest  is  superfluous  for  a  contrite  man. 
Extreme  unction  is  unnecessary,  and  not  a  sacrament. 

All  kinds  of  religious  Orders  confound  the  unity 
of  the  Church  of   Christ,  who    instituted   but  one 


226  John  Wyclif.  [1378- 

Order,  the  Order  of  service.  Vows  of  virginity  are  a 
doctrine  of  devils  ;  and  the  worship  of  saints  borders 
on  idolatry.  It  is  needless  to  visit  the  shrines  of 
saints;  the  miracles  alleged  to  be  performed  there 
may  be  only  delusions  of  the  devil.  It  is  lawful  to 
appeal  in  ecclesiastical  matters  and  matters  of  faith 
to  the  secular  prince.  All  dominion  is  founded  on 
grace,  and  God  divests  of  all  right  the  rulers  who 
abuse  their  power.  Christ  was  a  man,  and  his  man- 
hood should  receive  the  kind  of  worship  which  is 
known  as  "  latreia" — that  is,  the  worship  of  service 
and  observance.  God  loved  David  and  Peter  as 
deeply  when  they  grievously  sinned  as  he  does  now, 
when  they  are  possessed  of  glory.  God  gives  no 
good  things  to  his  enemies ;  and  he  is  not  more 
willing  to  reward  the  good  than  he  is  to  punish  the 
wicked.  All  things  come  to  pass  by  a  fatal  neces- 
sity. God  could  not  have  made  the  world  other 
than  it  is  made;  and  he  cannot  make  that  which 
is  something  return  to  nothing — a  fatalism  which 
leads  up  to  the  paradox  that  God  must  "  obey"  the 
devil. 

It  is  evident  in  how  many  points  Wyclif  set  up  a 
standard  for  the  Reformers  who  came  after  him,  and 
especially  for  the  Calvinists,  Presbyterians,  and  Puri- 
tans. The  reader  will  not  need  to  be  reminded  that 
some  of  the  opinions  ascribed  to  him  by  those  who 
considered  him  a  dangerous  heretic  may  be  no  more 
than  their  own  interpretation  of  his  casual  expres- 
sion of  opinion,  whilst  all  of  them,  as  quoted  above, 
are  torn  from  their  context,  and  not  one  of  them 
could  be  accepted  as  accurate  without  verification 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  22  J 

from  Wyclif  s  own  writings.  Even  without  such  a 
deduction  in  his  favour  from  the  allegations  of 
Netter,  there  is  very  little  in  the  record  which  was 
not  frankly  adopted  and  endorsed  by  the  Reformed 
Church  in  the  sixteenth  century  ;  but,  if  the  common 
belief  of  Romanists  in  the  fourteenth  century  is 
taken  as  the  standard  of  orthodoxy,  then  no  doubt 
Wyclifs  opinions  must  be  admitted  to  have  been 
steeped  in  the  rankest  heresy.  And,  even  if  we 
agree  with  every  one  of  the  conclusions  attributed  to 
him,  our  judgment  to-day  might  be  fairly  expressed 
in  the  terms  employed  by  the  University  of  Oxford 
in  response  to  Pope  Gregory's  bull — that  the  conclu- 
sions are  true,  and  essentially  orthodox,  but  framed 
in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  room  for  misconceptions. 

The  denial  of  transubstantiation  was  the  special 
cause  of  proceedings  taken  against  the  Reformer  in 
1 38 1  and  1382,  of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak  fur- 
ther on.  It  is,  however,  pertinent  to  the  present 
phase  of  his  development — in  the  years  1378  to  1380 
— to  quote  what  was  said  of  him  by  Wodeford, 
whose  words  are  cited  by  Dr.  Shirley  from  a  Latin 
manuscript  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  "  So  long  as 
Wyclif  was  '  sententiariusl  and  even  '  baccalaurins 
responsalisj*  he  openly  and  in  the  schools  main- 
tained that,  although  the  sacramental  accidents 
rested  upon  some  substance,  yet  in  the  act  of  con- 
secration the  material   bread    had    ceased  to  exist. 

*  "  Sententiarius ,"  one  who  lectured  on  the  "  Sentences,"  so  as  to 
qualify  for  the  degree  of  B.D.  "  Baccalaurhis  responsalis"  a  B.D. 
of  two  years'  standing.  So  far  as  is  known,  Wyclif  was  a  B.D.  as 
early  as  1363. 


228  John  Wyclif.  [1378- 

Pressed  by  many  questions  as  to  what  was  the  sub- 
ject of  those  accidents,  he  began  by  replying,  for 
some  considerable  time,  that  it  was  \  a  mathematical 
body.'  Later  on,  in  consequence  of  many  arguments 
urged  against  this,  he  would  reply  that  he  did  not 
know  what  was  the  substance  of  the  accidents ;  but 
he  was  firm  as  to  their  resting  upon  some  substance. 
Now  (that  is,  in  1 381)  in  his  conclusions  and  in  his 
confession  he  expressly  declares  that  the  bread 
remains  after  the  consecration,  and  that  it  is  the 
substance  of  the  accidents." 

Nothing,  surely,  could  be  more  eloquent  of  the 
moral  struggle  through  which  Wyclif  had  been  pass- 
ing, and  was  yet  to  pass,  on  a  subject  which  has  in 
all  ages  been  the  most  searching  and  serious  that 
can  possibly  engage  the  mind  of  a  devout  Christian 
transcendentalist.  He  had  begun  his  life,  so  soon  as 
his  reasoning  faculties  had  asserted  themselves,  with 
the  familiar  "  late  Roman"  separation  of  the  acci- 
dents from  the  substance  or  subject.  For  him,  how- 
ever, the  essence  of  the  sacrament  was  in  the  words 
of  Christ,  and  in  the  act  of  faith  which  enabled  him 
to  see  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ ;  but,  if  he  saw, 
it  was  with  the  eye  of  faith,  and  not  with  the  physi- 
cal sight.  That  was  his  first  step — and  already  he 
was  a  heretic  in  comparison  with  those  who  declared 
that  they  saw  a  physical  Christ  with  physical  sight. 
The  man  of  comfortable  faith  looked  upon  the 
bread  and  reverently  declared  :  "  I  see  no  bread — it 
has  gone  though  it  has  not  disappeared.  I  see  the 
physical  body  of  Christ,  wearing  the  shape  of 
bread  ;  but  it  is  only  because  of  my  infirmity  that  it 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  229 

seems  to  be  what  it  is  not — seems  to  be  wheaten 
bread  when  it  is  actually  and  really  my  Lord  and 
God." 

To  Wyclif,  even  as  a  young  man,  this  savoured  of 
idolatry.  In  vain  his  friends  would  assure  him  that 
it  was  no  idolatry,  but  the  very  sublimity  of  faith. 
"  I  grant,"  he  began  by  saying,  "  that  the  substance 
is  altered.  The  '  hoc  est  corpus .  enables  me  to  see 
the  body  of  Christ — a  spiritual  body,  seen  with 
spiritual  eyes.  But  what,  then,  do  I  see  with  my 
physical  sight  ?  I  am  a  realist ;  I  see  a  body,  with 
attributes  and  mathematical  dimensions — but  what 
body  ?  No  longer  a  mathematical  body,  you  say,  if 
the  consecration  has  annihilated  all  the  mathemati- 
cal and  physical  qualities  of  wheaten  bread  ?  Then 
I  cannot  tell  you  what  the  body  is,  but  sure  I  am 
that  a  body  is  there.  To  say  that  it  is  physically 
God  is  idolatry.  To  say,  as  some  of  us  do,  that 
what  I  see  and  handle  are  accidents  without  a  sub- 
ject is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  the  '  hoc  est 
corpus,'  which  made  Christ  visible  to  the  eye  of  faith, 
also  made  that  wheaten  bread  into  something  infi- 
nitely inferior  in  the  scale  of  nature — lower  than  the 
peasant's  bean-bread,  lower  than  the  soil  in  which  the 
grain  of  wheat  germinated  ;  for  they  have  substance 
as  well  as  accidents,  but  this  unhappy  phenomenon 
retains  its  accidents  after  losing  its  substance." 

Such,  in  part,  was  to  be  his  reasoning  in  1 38 1 ,  when 
he  had  pronounced  his  "  eureka,"  and  committed 
himself  to  what  was  deemed  the  most  pestilent  of 
his  heresies.  In  1378,  when  he  came  back  to  Oxford 
to  ruminate  on  the  meaning  and  the  riddle  of  his 


230  John  Wyclif,  C1378- 

life — condemned  by  the  Pope,  condemned  by  the 
Primate  and  the  Bishop  of  London,  a  byword 
amongst  the  monks  and  friars,  distrusted  henceforth 
by  all  who  looked  to  Pope  and  bishops  as  authorita- 
tive exponents  of  the  faith — he  had  not  yet  brought 
himself  to  utter  the  answer  which  must  have  trem- 
bled on  his  lips.  But  there,  in  the  home  of  his  youth 
and  manhood,  he  nursed  the  secret  of  his  soul.  He 
taught  in  the  schools  with  increasing  zeal,  preached 
and  wrote  in  English,  at  Oxford  and  at  Lutterworth, 
with  feverish  activity,  and  passed,  perhaps,  some  of 
the  happiest  and  yet  the  saddest  moments  of  his 
life  with  the  friends  who  loved  him  so  well — with 
Nicholas  Hereford  and  Laurence  Bedenham,  with 
Rygge  and  Repyngdon,  with  John  Aston  and  Flem- 
myng,  with  John  Purvey,  William  Jamys,  and  many 
others.  They  used  to  call  him  Johannes  Augustini, 
as  well  as  the  Evangelical  Doctor,  and  they  were 
brave  enough  to  bear  with  him  the  suspicion  and 
obloquy  which  were  his  lot.  But  the  worst  days  of 
his  persecution  were  yet  to  come. 

It  is  told  of  Jamys  that  in  a  sermon  before  Chan- 
cellor Berton — somewhat  later  than  the  time  we  are 
now  considering  —  he  made  use  of  the  expression, 
"  There  is  no  idolatry  if  not  in  the  sacrament  of  the 
altar."  Whereon  the  Chancellor  broke  in  with  a  sar- 
castic comment.  "  Jam  loqueris  ut  philosophus  !  " — 
"  Now  you  are  talking  like  the  philosopher !  "  And 
if  Wyclif  was  present,  doubtless  the  eyes  of  all  were 
turned  upon  him,  for  they  knew  whose  feather  had 
impelled  that  shaft.  The  story  is  sometimes  told 
as  referring  to  Rygge  instead  of  Berton,  in  which 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  231 

case  the  Chancellor's  remark  would  bear  another 
meaning.  But  it  is  unlikely  that  a  Chancellor  would 
have  broken  into  a  public  discourse  with  emphatic 
approval  of  a  statement  which  must  have  given 
offence  to  many  of  the  congregation. 

It  was  in  every  way  a  stirring  and  creative  time. 
The  papal  Schism  had  thrown  all  Christendom  into 
extraordinary  ferment,  and  men  had  scarcely  ranged 
themselves  on  their  respective  sides.  It  was  not 
until  near  the  end  of  1379,  eighteen  months  after 
the  Neapolitan  Archbishop  and  the  French  Cardinal 
had  placed  their  rival  claims  before  the  Western 
Churches,that  England  definitely  declared  for  Urban  ; 
but  to  support  the  pretensions  of  one  Pope  in  prefer- 
ence to  those  of  another  was  not  sufficient  to  set 
the  mind  at  rest  concerning  the  very  disturbing 
fact  of  the  Schism  itself.  Wyclif,  in  common  with 
many  a  devout  Christian  at  that  crisis,  was  very 
deeply  affected  by  the  events  which  were  occurring 
day  by  day. 

In  connection  with  the  sympathy  felt  for  Wyclif 
by  his  own  University,  it  would  of  course  be  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  he  was  primarily  or  principally  re- 
sponsible for  Oxford's  departures  from  orthodoxy  in 
the  fourteenth  century.  To  think  that  would  be  to 
make  nothing  of  the  influence  of  other  inquiring 
minds  amongst  the  Schoolmen,  the  lay  graduates, 
and  even  the  friars.  We  have  seen  already  that 
there  were  some  very  liberal-minded  men  amongst 
the  Franciscans  in  particular ;  and  as  a  matter  of 
fact  we  find  traces  of  "  grievous  errors  "  at  Oxford 
before  Wyclif  came  to    maturity,  and  even  before  he 


John  Wyclif.  [1378- 


was  born.  If  some  of  these  errors  were  identical 
with  errors  that  Wyclif  subsequently  held,  the  fair 
conclusion  is  that  he  imbibed  them  at  Oxford  as 
part  of  the  mental  sustenance  which  had  proved  to  be 
best  adapted  to  his  intellectual  growth  and  needs.  - 

Archbishop  Langham(i  366-1 368),  who  had  been  a 
monk,  and  was  notoriously  hostile  to  the  mendicant 
Orders,  wrote  in  the  course  of  his  primacy  a  disciplin- 
ary letter  to  Oxford  in  which  he  drew  attention  to 
the  unsound  views  at  that  time  current  in  the  Uni- 
versity. He  mentioned  a  number  of  these — as  that 
the  baptism  of  infants  is  not  a  necessity  for  salva- 
tion;  that  no  one  could  justly  suffer  damnation  for 
original  sin  alone,  without  the  re-inforcement  of 
wilful  sin  after  birth ;  that  there  is  a  sufficient 
"remedy  in  nature  "  for  the  sins  of  true  believers; 
that  no  one  could  be  justly  deprived  of  his  heavenly 
inheritance  for  sins  committed  without  a  clear  vision 
of  God  ;  that  every  human  being  has  at  least  one 
clear  vision  of  God  before  his  death  ;  that  mere  pro- 
hibition of  an  act  is  not  sufficient  to  constitute  the 
commission  of  that  act  a  sin  ;  that  the  Father  in  him- 
self is  finite,  the  Son  finite,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  alone 
infinite ;  that  God  cannot  annihilate  his  creatures,  or 
make  something  into  nothing  ;  that  God  cannot  be  a 
tormentor  ;  that  even  Mary  and  the  saints  are  still 
liable  to  sin  and  damnation ;  that,  conversely,  the 
damned  are  capable  of  salvation  ;  that  future  punish- 
ments will  not  be  everlasting;  and  that  God  could 
not  create  an  absolutely  impeccable  being. 

It  is  manifest  that  some  of  these  tenets,  sound  or 
unsound,  are  at  least  as  old  as  Christianity,  whilst 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  233 

one  or  two  belong  to  the  class  of  what  may  be  called 
logical  hyperbole.  Certainly  Wyclif  held  many  or 
most  of  them,  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  he  would 
have  condemned  others.  There  is  indeed  a  strain  of 
greater  optimism  in  these  earlier  Oxford  heresies  than 
Wyclif's  mood  and  experience  permitted  him  to  en- 
tertain. He  was  a  predestinarian,  a  believer  in  that 
"  foreknowledge  "  of  damnation  which  so  easily  be- 
comes foredooming  to  damnation.  He  believed  so 
strongly  in  the  potency  of  evil  that  he  thought  God 
himself  was  constrained  by  it,  and  accordingly  he 
could  scarcely  hold  that  punishment  was  other  than 
everlasting.  These  important  points  of  divergence 
should  be  borne  in  mind  by  and  by,  when  we  come 
to  the  melancholy  stage  at  which  many  of  the  Re- 
former's disciples  fell  away  from  him. 

Wyclif's  return  to  Oxford  in  1378  coincided,  by  a 
curious  chance,  with  a  discovery  made  by  certain 
devout  Christians  at  Dundalk,  that  the  bones  of  his 
old  friend  and  master  Fitzralph  were  endowed  with 
the  power  of  working  miracles.  He  had  expressed 
a  general  opinion  that  miracles  of  this  kind,  wrought 
at  the  tombs  of  the  saints,  were  not  unlikely  to  be 
delusions  of  the  devil ;  but  we  may  be  sure  that  if 
he  thought  them  possible  in  any  case  he  would  be 
disposed  to  accept  the  testimony  of  the  pious  in  re- 
gard to  the  doughty  old  Archbishop  of  Armagh — 
the  Armachanus  who  was  already  a  great  authority 
at  Oxford  when  Wyclif  went  up,  and  who  certainly 
left  his  mark  on  Wyclif's  character  and  opinions. 
Wyclif  speaks  of  him  with  affection  and  reverence, 
and  evidently  accepted  from  him  as  a  bequest  not 


2  34  John  Wyclif.  [1378- 

merely  his  ideas  of  divine  lordship  but  also  his  con- 
troversial antagonism  to  the  friars. 

The  report  of  the  Dundalk  miracles,  then,  would 
come  just  in  time  to  stimulate  old  enmity,  to  add 
fuel  to  the  fire  which  had  been  kindled  afresh  by  the 
papal  bulls.  The  friars  are  said  to  have  been  much 
troubled  by  the  report  in  question,  for  everyone 
knew  how  bitterly  Fitzralph  had  opposed  them, 
even  at  the  Court  of  Avignon ;  and  clearly,  if  he 
were  accepted  as  a  saint  and  a  miracle-worker,  there 
would  be  an  ugly  inference  against  themselves  in 
the  minds  of  the  faithful.  Of  course  they  did  not 
believe  in  the  miracles,  and  it  may  be  that  they 
expressed  themselves  a  little  too  plainly  on  the  sub- 
ject of  their  old  enemy.  Still  nothing  of  this  sort 
was  needed  to  widen  the  breach  between  the  four 
Orders  and  the  man  whom  they  had  twice  so  nearly 
succeeded  in  crushing.  An  opportunity  came  which 
they  might  have  turned  to  good  account  by  effecting 
at  least  a  partial  reconciliation  with  their  antagonist ; 
but  they  attempted  to  get  too  much  out  of  it,  and 
the  only  consequence  was  that  they  made  matters 
worse  than  ever. 

Early  in  1379  Wyclif  had  a  severe  and  even  danger- 
ous illness.  It  may  have  been  the  result  of  the  great 
mental  and  physical  strain  which  had  been  put  upon 
him  in  the  previous  year ;  and  perhaps  it  was  attended 
by  certain  premonitory  symptoms  of  the  collapse 
which  was  soon  to  overtake  him.  However  that  may 
be,  he  was  thought  to  be  at  the  end  of  his  tether; 
and  when  the  friars  knew  how  hard  it  was  going  with 
him  they  resolved  upon  a  curious  course  of  proceeding. 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  235 

Each  of  the  four  prominent  Orders,  Dominicans, 
Franciscans,  Carmelites,  and  Augustinians,  nomi- 
nated a  friar,  being  also  a  regent  or  doctor  in  di- 
vinity, to  take  part  in  a  deputation  to  the  dying 
heretic ;  and  they  took  with  them,  not  the  viaticum, 
or  any  other  of  the  consolations  of  religion,  or  even 
a  skilled  leech,  but  simply  four  aldermen  of  the  city 
of  Oxford.  It  is  certainly  not  easy  to  understand 
the  presence  of  those  aldermen,  unless  they  came 
with  a  genuine  message  of  condolence,  and  the  co- 
incidence of  their  visit  with  that  of  the  friars  was 
merely  accidental. 

They  began  by  wishing  the  sick  man  good  health 
and  a  speedy  recovery — and  then  told  him  that  he 
was  on  the  point  of  death,  and  asked  him  for  a 
retractation  of  the  hard  things  which  he  had  said 
against  them  in  his  lifetime.  It  is  impossible  to  fill 
in  the  details  of  what  must  have  been  a  highly 
dramatic  interview.  If  we  even  knew  the  names  of 
the  friars,  it  might  assist  us  to  a  better  understand- 
ing of  the  real  object  of  their  visit.  It  is  doubtful 
if  Wyclif  was  in  a  condition  to  answer  them  in  the 
first  instance,  for  he  was  too  weak  to  raise  himself  in 
his  bed.  His  visitors  were  thus  able,  without  let  or 
hindrance,  to  remind  him  of  the  heavy  blows  which 
he  had  dealt  them,  by  word  and  writing ;  and  they 
entreated  him  in  his  last  moments,  in  presence  of 
these  worthy  aldermen  who  might  attest  what  he 
said,  to  display  his  penitence  by  formally  withdraw- 
ing his  charges  against  the  Orders. 

It  was  a  bold  thing  to  ask,  even  of  a  dying  man ; 
but  it  seemed  to  be  just  the  stimulus  which  Wyclif 


1$  John  Wyclif.  ti37S- 

wanted  to  enable  him  to  throw  off  his  lethargy. 
The  emaciated  frame  and  the  lustreless  eyes  must 
have  taken  sudden  fire  from  the  soul  within,  for  we 
are  told  that  he  called  his  servants  to  his  side, 
ordered  them  to  raise  him  on  his  pillows,  and  then 
cried  out  with  unexpected  vigour,  "  I  will  not  die 
but  live,  and  I  will  show  up  the  evil  deeds  of  the 
friars  !  " 

He  did  live,  for  more  than  five  years  thereafter, 
and  both  he  and  the  Orders  gave  and  received  many 
hard  knocks.  His  first  and  main  quarrel  was  with 
the  false  teaching  and  usurped  authority  of  Rome ; 
but  he  could  never  come  to  terms  with  the  religious 
professors  who  had  forsaken  the  rule  of  poverty  in 
order  to  live  delicately,  to  exercise  dominion,  to 
amass  wealth,  and  to  keep  for  themselves  what  had 
been  given  to  them  in  trust  for  the  poor.  This  is  the 
note  which  prevails  throughout  his  writings  in  rela- 
tion to  the  mendicant  Orders,  and  which  he  enforces 
in  a  hundred  different  ways. 

Much  of  what  Wyclif  wrote,  especially  in  his 
longer  and  more  argumentative  works,  is  almost  un- 
readable for  men  and  women  of  the  present  day, 
and  serviceable  perhaps  for  nothing  so  much  as  the 
elucidation  of  his  character  and  work.  After  the 
lapse  of  five  complete  centuries,  in  every  year  of 
which  the  effect  of  his  stainless  and  courageous  life 
has  been  continuously  operative  in  the  cause  of  re- 
ligious freedom,  what  the  world  wants  to  see  and 
feel  is  not  so  much  the  quality  of  his  controversial 
logic,  or  the  exact  conclusiveness  of  his  somewhat 
ponderous   and    involved    arguments — for  which  at 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  237 

best  we  are  dependent  on  manifestly  corrupt  texts, 
— as  the  moral  lineaments  and  effective  force  of  the 
man  himself.  We  want  to  know  and  be  familiar 
with  the  John  Wyclif  who,  in  the  days  of  our  child- 
hood was  little  more  to  any  of  us  than  the  shadow 
of  a  great  name:  the  John  Wyclif  who  was  Chau- 
cer's contemporary  under  the  Plantagenet  kings ; 
who  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  history  moved  as  a  star 
across  the  dark  firmament  of  western  Europe;  a 
Schoolman,  and  yet  a  teacher  of  the  most  accepted 
Christianity  of  to-day.  We  want  to  feel  sure,  and 
we  are  only  just  beginning  to  feel  it,  that  the  man 
to  whom  every  lover  of  truth  is  so  largely  indebted 
stands  before  us  as  a  recognised  presence  and  iden- 
tity, in  his  form  and  substance  as  he  lived  ;  the  bril- 
liant Oxford  man  who  paced  the  pavements  of  the 
schools,  or  haunted  the  streets  and  meadows  be- 
tween his  college  and  the  silver  streams,  passing  the 
very  spot  where,  two  centuries  later,  bishops  such  as 
his  soul  would  have  loved  were  to  light  a  candle  for 
the  faith  as  he  believed  it ;  the  eager,  busy  optimist 
who  threw  himself  into  the  eddies  of  English  poli- 
tics, hoping  against  hope  that  the  secular  arm  would 
strike  effectively  where  he  saw  such  urgent  need  ;  the 
pale,  weak  priest,  with  firm-set  lips  and  undaunted 
eyes,  to  whom  the  re-discovered  truth  was  a  master- 
ing reality,  far  above  the  authority  of  Rome  or  the 
claims  of  tradition. 

To  read  the  controversial  works  of  Wyclif  without 
some  such  intimate  and  sympathetic  realisation  of 
his  character  is  to  make  no  near  approach  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  man,  and  very  little  towards  the 


238  John  Wyclif.  [1378 

comprehension  of  his  life-work.  To  the  merely 
critical  mind,  for  instance,  which  is  governed  by  our 
actual  canons  of  literary  taste  and  amenity,  and  for- 
gets to  transpose  the  language  of  the  fourteenth 
century  into  the  same  key  with  that  of  the  nine- 
teenth, the  tone  occasionally  adopted  by  Wyclif  in 
his  later  years  against  the  Papacy  and  the  religious 
Orders  may  well  seem  to  pass  the  bounds  of 
moderation. 

One  or  two  quotations  have  already  been  given 
from  the  sermons  of  Wyclif  in  which  the  unworthi- 
ness  of  Christian  professors  was  severely  castigated. 
Other  discourses  will  be  found  in  the  same  collection 
which  were  written  after  the  Schism,  in  some  of 
which  the  writer  declares  his  belief  that  the  friars 
are  mainly  actuated  by  greed,  and  that  they  would 
easily  change  from  Urban  to  Clement  if  such  a 
course  were  likely  to  be  more  profitable.  In  another 
sermon  he  charges  them  with  obstructing  the  Poor 
Priests,  who  interfered  with  their  gains.  In  the 
Vae  Octuplex,  which  is  found  in  all  the  best  manu- 
scripts of  Wyclif  s  sermons,  and  has  always  been 
attributed  to  him,  the  eight  woes  pronounced  against 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  are  brought  home  to  the 
Church  of  the  second  millennium,  and  especially  to 
the  friars.  This  indeed  is  Wyclif's  prevailing  note 
in  all  his  denunciations  —  that  the  errors  of  the 
Church  have  invaded  her  only  "  since  the  fiend  was 
loosed." 

Under  the  lash  of  such  a  tongue,  no  wonder  if  the 
friars,  the  monks  and  the  wealthier  clergy  had  be- 
come at  first  restive,  then   indignant,  then  bitterly 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step,  239 

and  vindictively  hostile  to  the  most  uncompromising 
of  their  cen  ors.  His  invective  was  certainly  not  of 
the  mildest  kind,  and  even  his  friends  have  occasion- 
ally lamented  the  stern  and  sweeping  character  of 
the  charges  which  he  brought  against  the  regular 
and  higher  secular  clergy.  Wyclif  himself  would 
have  admitted  that  there  were  priests,  regulars,  and 
perhaps  even  bishops  who  did  not  deserve  to  be 
branded  as  corrupt.  A  man  of  milder  (perhaps  less 
effective)  temperament  might  have  dwelt  upon  these 
exceptions,  and  have  been  more  on  his  guard  against 
the  misconceptions  which  arose  out  of  his  too  com- 
prehensive reproaches.  Possibly  it  never  occurred 
to  him  to  say  anything  so  fatuous  as  that  the  censure 
of  greed  and  hypocrisy  must  not  be  held  to  apply 
to  such  as  are  neither  greedy  nor  hypocritical.  The 
fourteenth  century,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  not 
a  time  of  mincing  words,  halting  controversies,  and 
compromises  which  sacrifice  nine  points  of  a  just 
demand  in  order  to  secure  the  tenth.  Wyclif  was 
thoroughly  a  man  of  his  century — a  leader  and  a 
pioneer,  it  is  true,  but  still  a  man  of  limited  knowl- 
edge, only  half  liberated  from  the  scholastic  yoke, 
conventional  in  his  dialectical  methods,  and  one  who 
was  too  much  attached  to  logical  precision — and  per- 
haps to  logical  hyperbole — to  think  much  of  the 
weaker  and  illogical  minds  which  would  be  disturbed 
by  his  confident  conclusions. 

It  is  natural  that  a  secular  clergyman  holding  such 
views  as  Wyclif  held,  and  expressing  them  with  in- 
creasing freedom  during  the  last  few  years  of  his 
life,  should  have  been  charged  with  the  very  offences 


240  John  Wyclif.  [1378- 

against  which  he  most  indignantly  protested.  His 
enemies  did  not  fail  to  say  that  his  rage  against  the 
monks  and  friars  was  not  very  pronounced  until 
Archbishop  Langham  in  1366  had  deprived  him  of 
the  wardenship  of  Canterbury  Hall,  and  put  back 
the  regulars  in  place  of  the  seculars — events  which, 
in  all  probability,  had  no  reference  at  all  to  our  John 
Wyclif.  In  any  case  the  question  would  seem  to  be 
not  so  much  when  Wyclif's  rage  was  hottest  as 
whether  he  was  hot  with  good  reason. 

Another  accusation  brought  against  him  by  the 
friars  and  their  friends,  after  he  was  dead,  repre- 
sented him  as  having  tried  in  vain  to  secure  a  nomi- 
nation to  the  see  of  Worcester — the  inference  being 
that  his  attacks  upon  the  wealthy  clergy  who  mis- 
used their  wealth,  and  upon  the  rapidly  increasing 
endowments  of  the  Church,  grew  out  of  this  check 
to  his  worldly  ambitions.  No  candid  reader  of  the 
life  and  writings  of  Wyclif  will  give  a  second  thought 
to  these  charges  of  hypocrisy  and  greed,  stamped  as 
they  are  by  their  patent  absurdity. 

To  admit  that  the  Reformer's  hostility  to  the 
abuses  of  the  monastic  system,  and  his  condemna- 
tion of  a  wealthy  priesthood,  were  not  openly  dis- 
played until  he  had  felt  the  smart  of  personal 
disappointment  would  be  to  ignore  the  note  of 
continuity  which  is  manifest  throughout  his  intel- 
lectual history.  If  there  is  any  force  at  all  in  what 
has  been  said  of  Wyclif's  mental  and  moral  descent 
from  the  liberal  Schoolmen,  and  especially  from  his 
immediate  predecessor  William  of  Ockham,  it  fol- 
lows as  a  matter  of  course  that  he  began  his  career 


1380]  The  Decisive  Step.  241 

as  a  clergyman  with  a  profound  belief  in  the  doctrine 
of  evangelical  poverty,  and  did  not  wait  until  he  was 
more  than  forty  years  old  before  he  gave  it  public 
utterance.  At  any  rate  his  tongue  was  specially 
unloosed  against  the  friars  after  the  death  of  Fitz- 
ralph  in  1360;  and  though,  like  the  Archbishop  of 
Armagh,  he  had  never  held  the  extreme  doctrine  of 
evangelical  poverty  as  it  stood  condemned  in  the 
decretals — based  on  the  assertion  that  Christ  himself 
had  begged  instead  of  working  for  his  living — still 
his  advance  on  Fitzralph's  position  was  enough  to 
prove  that  Wyclif  was  not  fishing  for  preferment. 
To  say,  as  his  greatest  enemies  said,  that  he  inherited 
the  damnable  doctrines  of  Marsiglio  was  to  say  that 
he  was  in  sympathy  with  the  Fraticelli  and  the 
Brotherhood  of  Munich,  that  he  accepted  from  his 
boyhood  the  whole  theory  of  a  spiritual  Church, 
free  from  worldly  titles  or  claims,  and  that  the 
logical  indefensibility  of  Church  endowments  was 
one  of  the  grounding  principles  of  his  belief. 

If  other  reasons  were  needed  to  show  how  unten- 
able is  the  notion  that  Wyclif  began  to  condemn  en- 
dowments in  1363  or  1368 — the  see  of  Worcester 
fell  vacant  at  both  these  dates, — because  he  had 
angled  for  a  bishopric  without  success,  it  might  be 
enough  to  point  out  that  his  actions  and  utterances, 
so  far  as  we  are  acquainted  with  them,  were  consis- 
tently of  such  a  character  as  to  militate  against  the 
chance  of  his  receiving  any  sort  of  preferment  in  the 
Church  ;  that  his  association  with  John  of  Gaunt, 
who  had  been  credited  with  a  desire  to  spoliate  the 

Church,  would  have   been  the  last  thing  to  suggest 
16 


242  John  Wyclif.  [1380 

itself  to  an  orthodox  clergyman  in  search  of  a  mitre; 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  his  attendance  upon  the 
King,  the  repute  of  his  preaching  in  London,  his  deal- 
ings with  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  the  frequent  recourse  of  Parliament  to  his 
opinion  and  advice,  say  between  1366  and  1380, 
would  have  sufficed  to  obtain  him  a  bishopric  if  he 
had  been  laying  himself  out  to  secure  one — if  he  had 
economised  his  liberalism  instead  of  speaking  his 
mind  and  eventually  disregarding  the  wishes  of  the 
Duke  on  a  question  of  principle  ;  and  that,  in  point 
of  fact,  when  the  sinecure  prebend  of  Aust  was  con- 
ferred upon  him  in  1375,  on  his  return  from  Bruges, 
he  conscientiously  declined  it. 

The  friars,  as  we  shall  see,  had  by  no  means  shot 
their  last  bolt ;  but  up  to  the  year  1380,  at  any  rate, 
Wyclif  had  the  best  of  the  argument  in  every  sense. 
The  comparative  success  of  his  attack  upon  the 
Roman  system  in  England,  as  well  as  upon  the 
alien  Orders  and  the  national  hierarchy,  is  sufficiently 
accounted  for  by  the  organic  weakness  of  Rome  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  by  the  patriotic  resistance 
of  Englishmen  to  encroachments  from  a  vassal  of 
France,  and  by  the  revulsion  of  public  feeling  against 
ecclesiastical  and  monastic  scandals.  Historians 
who  were  prejudiced  in  favour  of  the  papal  cause — 
and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  men  like  Netter, 
Harpsfield,  and  even  the  Dominicans  who  confuted 
Wyclif  after  his  death,  had  the  making  of  his  history  in 
their  own  hands — admit  that  the  provisions  and  other 
exactions  of  Rome  went  a  long  way  towards  ensuring 
him  the  measure  of  success  which  he  actually  gained. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


CONDEMNED   AT    OXFORD. 


HE  time  had  come  when 
Wyclif  had  reached  his  last 
stage  of  heresy,  and  he  made 
up  his  mind  to  declare  boldly 
against  the  miraculous  and 
non-natural  element  in  the 
sacrament  of  the  altar.  After 
many  meanders,  as  we  have 
seen  above,  the  Reformer 
found  himself  at  the  centre  of  the  labyrinth,  with  his 
doubts  resolved  and  his  resolution  taken. 

According  to  Netter  of  Walden,  he  began  to  lec- 
ture at  Oxford  against  the  docrine  of  transubstantia- 
tion  (  "  incepit  determinate  materiam  "J  in  the  summer 
of  1 38 1  ;  but  the  actual  date  of  the  inquiry  which 
was  held  in  this  year  by  Chancellor  Berton,  at  the 
instance  of  the  archbishop  and  bishops,  is  somewhat 
in  doubt.     Easter,  as  Dr.  Shirley  points  out  in  deal- 

243 


244  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

ing  with  this  subject,  fell  in  1381  on  April  14th  ;  and 
the  Confession  which  was  written  by  Wyclif  after 
the  inquiry  had  been  held  bears  the  date  of  May  10th. 
Perhaps  the  four  weeks  between  these  dates  leaves 
time  for  all  that  is  recorded  as  having  happened. 
The  inquiry  itself  was  very  much  in  the  nature  of  a 
foregone  conclusion.  The  issue  of  the  condemna- 
tion under  the  Chancellor's  seal,  its  promulgation  in 
Wyclif's  presence,  the  appeal  to  John  of  Gaunt  and 
his  response,  with  the  writing  of  Wyclif's  rejoinder, 
may  certainly  have  happened  within  a  month,  and 
are  scarcely  likely  to  have  been  dragged  out  over 
thirteen  months. 

The  articles  attributed  to  Wyclif,  for  which  the 
Chancellor  called  him  to  account,  were  these  : 

1.  The  consecrated  host  which  we  see  upon  the 
altar  is  not  Christ,  nor  any  part  of  him,  but  an 
efficacious  prefigurement  of  him. 

2.  No  partaker  can  see  Christ  in  the  consecrated 
host  with  his  physical  eyesight,  though  he  may  do  so 
with  the  eye  of  faith. 

3.  The  faith  of  the  Roman  Church  was  expressed 
of  old  in  the  declaration  of  Berengarius,  that  the 
bread  and  wine  which  remain  after  the  benediction 
are  the  consecrated  host. 

4.  By  virtue  of  the  sacramental  words,  the 
eucharist  contains  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
in  a  true  and  real  sense,  down  to  the  minutest 
particular. 

5.  Transubstantiation,  identification,  and  impana- 
tion — terms  which  have  been  given  to  the  eucharistic 
symbols — have  no  foundation  in  Scripture. 


1381]  Condemned  at  Oxford.  245 

6.  It  is  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  the  holy  fathers 
to  maintain  that  there  may  be  an  accident  without  a 
substance  in  the  host. 

7.  The  sacrament  of  the  eucharist  is  in  its  nature 
bread  or  wine,  containing,  by  virtue  of  the  sacra- 
mental words,  the  true  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
down  to  the  minutest  particular. 

8.  The  sacrament  of  the  eucharist  is  in  figure  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ,  existing  by  conversion  of 
the  bread  or  wine,  whereof  something  definite  re- 
mains after  consecration,  although,  so  far  as  concerns 
the  faithful,  it  has  been  exhausted  ("  sopitum" ). 

9.  There  is  no  foundation  for  saying  that  an  acci- 
dent exists  without  a  substance,  for  in  that  case  God 
is  reduced  to  nothing,  and  a  distinct  article  of  the 
Christian  faith  disappears. 

10.  Every  person  or  sect  is  infected  with  heresy 
who  obstinately  maintains  that  the  sacrament  of  the 
altar  is  mere  bread  (per  se  existens),  decidedly  lower 
in  nature  and  less  perfect  than  u  pants  equinus." 

11.  Everyone  who  obstinately  maintains  that  the 
said  sacrament  is  an  accident,  a  quality,  quantity,  or 
the  aggregate  of  these,  falls  into  the  like  heresy. 

12.  Wheaten  bread,  with  which  alone  it  is  lawful 
to  celebrate,  is  decidedly  more  perfect  in  nature  than 
bread  made  of  beans  or  rats'  flesh,  either  of  which  is 
more  perfect  in  the  scale  of  nature  than  a  simple 
accident. 

In  addition  to  these  contentions,  Wyclif  was 
charged  before  the  Chancellor  with  maintaining  that 
the  body  of  Christ  could  not  be  multiplied  in  re- 
gard to  its  dimensions  or  its  limits,  though  he  ad- 


246  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

mitted  that  it  might  be  multiplied  in  a  virtual  sense, 
as  He  can  be  said  to  be  present  in  every  part  of  his 
kingdom.  It  was  quite  possible,  he  said,  that  the 
bread  might  be  converted  and  yet  remain  the  same 
bread — just  as  the  paschal  lamb  remains  a  lamb 
when  it  is  made  a  sacrament  and  figure  of  Christ. 
The  bread  becomes  Christ  figuratively,  virtually,  and 
tropically,  but  not  corporeally,  or  even  with  the  body 
which  Christ  now  wears  in  heaven.*  It  is  more  accu- 
rate to  say  that  Wyclif  defined  transubstantiation 
than  to  say  that  he  denied  it. 

That  some  of  these  ideas,  or  the  manner  in  which 
they  are  stated  and  illustrated,  should  have  shocked 
both  such  as  had  not  thought  the  question  out  and 
such  as,  having  thought  it  out,  would  have  preferred 
that  Wyclif  should  have  shown  himself  a  little  more 
squeamish  in  dealing  with  it,  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at.  Amongst  the  latter  may  have  been  Dr.  Rygge 
— if  this  member  of  Berton's  Council  is  to  be 
identified  with  the  future  Chancellor;  which  seems, 
indeed,  a  little  improbable.  But,  if  it  were  so,  he 
would  not  by  any  means  be  the  only  prominent  man 
of  his  day  whom  Wyclif  contrived  to  win  over  from 
the  ranks  of  his  enemies. 

The  inquiry  into  Wyclif  s  new  teaching  was  held 
by  the  Chancellor  and  twelve  doctors  in  the  Augus- 

*  Wyclif,  said  S.  T.  Coleridge,  "was  much  sounder  and  more 
truly  Catholic  in  his  view  of  the  Eucharist  than  Luther.  And  I  find, 
not  without  much  pleasure,  that  my  own  view  of  it,  which  I  was 
afraid  was  original,  was  maintained  in  the  tenth  century — that  is  to 
say,  that  the  body  broken  had  no  reference  to  the  human  body  of 
Christ,  but  to  the  kara  noumenon,  or  symbolical  body,  the  Rock  that 
followed  the  Israelites."— (Table  Talk.) 


1381]  Condemned  at  Oxford.  247 

tinian  schools,  where  Wyclif  himself  attended,  and 
maintained  his  opinions  with  his  usual  vigour.  The 
doctors  in  question  were  Lawndreyn  and  Rygge, 
professors  of  the  "  sacred  page,"  Mowbray,  a  doctor 
of  canon  and  civil  law,  Gascoyne,  a  doctor  of  decre- 
tals, Crump,  of  the  Benedictines,  with  John  Wells 
from  the  abbey  at  Ramsey,  three  Preaching  Friars, 
Chessam,  Bruscombe,  and  Wolverton,  the  Francis- 
can Tyssyngton,  Shipton  of  the  Augustinians,  and 
Lovey  of  the  Carmelites. 

The  Chancellor's  decision  was  given  with  the 
unanimous  consent  of  his  twelve  advisers.  It  does 
not  contain  Wyclif's  name,  but  selects  for  special 
condemnation  these  two  contentions — that  the  sub- 
stance of  material  bread  and  wine  remains  after  con- 
secration, and  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are 
not  essentially,  substantially,  and  corporeally  present 
in  the  sacrament,  but  only  figuratively  or  tropically. 
These  "  pestiferous  "  errors  the  judgment  emphati- 
cally condemns,  and  a  solemn  monition — primo, 
secitndo,  tertio,  et  districtias  —  is  launched  in  the 
usual  canonical  terms,  to  the  effect  that  no  man 
thereafter  should  openly  teach  or  defend  those  con- 
clusions, or  either  of  them,  in  the  schools  or  outside, 
within  the  University  of  Oxford,  under  pain  of  im- 
prisonment, suspension  from  all  his  offices,  and  the 
major  excommunication. 

Wyclif  is  said  to  have  been  disconcerted  by  this 
condemnation  and  threat ;  but  no  actual  sign  of 
confusion  is  mentioned.  On  the  contrary,  he  sat  in 
his  chair  and  listened  to  the  decision,  and  after  it 
had   been  read  out  he  contended  that  neither  the 


248  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

Chancellor  nor  any  of  his  colleagues  had  been  able  to 
break  down  his  argument.  Truly  a  pertinacious 
heretic,  as  Netter  says  of  him  in  this  connection  ! 

Nevertheless  it  must  have  been  a  very  unwelcome 
fact  for  the  Reformer  and  his  friends  that  he  should 
have  been  condemned,  even  in  this  indirect  fashion, 
by  the  Chancellor  of  the  university  with  which  he 
was  so  closely  associated,  and  where  he  was  held  in 
such  high  honour  by  a  majority  of  masters  and 
students.  The  effect  of  the  condemnation  must 
have  been  greatly  weakened  by  the  evident  unfair- 
ness of  putting  six  friars  and  two  monks  on  a  com- 
mittee of  twelve,  selected  by  a  secular  clergyman, 
to  inquire  into  the  orthodoxy  of  a  man  who  on 
independent  grounds  had  had  so  many  passages 
of  arms  with  the  regular  clergy.  The  University  at 
large  appears  to  have  taken  this  view  somewhat 
decidedly  ;  and  thereafter,  for  at  least  another  twelve- 
month, the  authority  of  Wyclif  amongst  his  Oxford 
adherents  was  greater  than  ever.  Some  of  them, 
no  doubt,  fell  away  from  their  allegiance  when  they 
found  that  the  authorities  were  going  against  him, 
but  he  clearly  had  a  strong  party  up  to  the  middle 
of  1382.  The  successor  of  Berton  in  the  chancellor- 
ship was  a  friend  of  Wyclif's,  Robert  Rygge,  and  no 
doubt  the  state  of  public  feeling  influenced  the 
selection  of  a  Wycliffite.  It  should  be  mentioned 
that  Berton  was  subsequently  credited  with  having 
approximated  in  some  measure  to  the  position  of 
the  man  whom  he  had  condemned. 

Wyclif  himself  had  no  idea  of  sitting  down  calmly 
under  a  condemnation  pronounced  by  his  personal 


1381]  Condemned  at  Oxford.  249 

enemies,  and  by  a  Chancellor  who  had  plainly  gone 
beyond  the  sentiment  of  the  University.  He  did 
not  affect  to  treat  the  decision  as  impersonal,  and 
therefore  one  that  might  be  safely  ignored.  He  took 
it  home  to  himself,  and  went  to  the  length  of  address- 
ing a  direct  appeal  to  the  Crown. 

It  was  the  natural  and  proper  appeal  under  the 
circumstances.  Berton  had  conducted  the  inquiry 
and  pronounced  his  decision  as  Chancellor,  and  in 
the  exercise  of  his  authority  on  a  question  of  univer- 
sity teaching  and  discipline.  His  judgment,  indeed, 
was  scarcely  equitable,  and  at  any  rate  it  strangely 
jumbled  together  the  academic  and  the  ecclesiastical 
functions.  Berton,  like  Wyclif,  was  a  secular  priest 
and  a  regent  of  divinity,  but  in  both  respects  the 
Reformer  was  senior  to  the  other  by  several  years. 
The  talk  of  excommunication,  however,  was  only  a 
threat ;  the  effectiveness  of  the  judgment  was  in  its 
prohibition  of  certain  teaching ;  and  it  was  against  this 
prohibition  that  Wyclif  rightly  appealed  from  the 
Chancellor  to  the  Crown.  He  was,  in  fact,  simply 
acting  in  conformity  with  the  royal  decree  of  1366, 
and  with  the  consistent  claim  of  the  University  to  be 
independent  in  its  own  sphere  of  bishops  as  well  as 
of  popes. 

At  any  rate  the  appeal  reached  the  King's  Council ; 
and  it  is  stated  by  one  authority  that  John  of  Gaunt 
himself  brought  the  answer  down  to  Oxford.  What 
was  the  answer?  Was  Wyclif  still  so  far  potent  with 
the  Court  as  to  obtain  a  technical  victory  over  Berton 
and  the  twelve  doctors  ?  That  would  make  it  easier 
to  understand  the  temporary  removal  or  withdrawal 


250  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

of  the  Chancellor,  and  the  elaborate  treatises  in  which 
Berton  himself,  Tyssyngton,  and  others  proceeded 
to  combat  the  views  of  Wyclif  when  the  Committee 
of  Doctors  had  failed  to  silence  him.  Either  the  suc- 
cess or  the  rejection  of  the  appeal  would  be  consistent 
with  the  action  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  who  is  said 
to  have  enjoined  his  friend  not  to  speak  further  of 
the  new  question  which  he  had  raised. 

It  is  impossible  to  help  smiling  at  the  magniloquent 
phrase  which  Netter,  the  confessor  of  Henry  V., 
applies  to  the  grandfather  of  his  monarch  in  this 
connection.  Hitherto  he  has  had  no  good  word  for 
John  of  Gaunt,  but  rather  the  contrary.  Now  that 
the  Duke  has  begun  to  grow  cool  towards  the 
heresiarch,  he  is  styled  nobilis  dominus  dux  egregzus, 
et  miles  strenuus,  sapiensque  consiliarius  Dux  Lancas- 
tricz,  sacrce  ecclesice  filius  fidelis.  The  corrector  of 
William  Courtenay  and  William  of  Wykeham  would 
scarcely  have  recognised  himself  under  such  a  legend. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  by  this  time  John  of  Gaunt 
was  exhibiting  far  less  zeal  in  the  cause  which  he 
formerly  had  so  much  at  heart.  He  may  have  found 
the  Church  .directly  and  indirectly  a  good  deal 
stronger  than  he  expected.  He  may  have  foreseen 
that  he  would  need  the  help  of  the  hierarchy  in  other 
and  more  attractive  schemes  which  were  forming 
themselves  in  his  mind.  And  observe,  by  the  way, 
that  it  was  the  influence  of  the  Church  which  set  the 
crown  on  the  head  of  his  son  in  1399,  and  would 
have  set  it  on  his  own  head  if  he  had  lived  to  the 
age  of  sixty.  At  all  events  he  must  have  found  that 
to  govern  through  the  mother  and  the  Council  of  the 


1381]  Condemned  at  Oxford.  251 

young  King  was  by  no  means  so  easy  as  it  had  been 
to  govern  in  the  name  of  his  doting  father.  Be  the 
reason  what  it  may,  he  had  begun  to  conciliate  and 
flatter  the  prelates,  without  in  any  way  regaining 
thereby  the  popularity  which  he  had  lost  amongst 
the  masses  of  Englishmen.  So  far  had  he  gone 
back  upon  his  old  policy  that,  nine  years  after  the 
exclusion  of  the  clergy  from  the.  higher  offices,  less 
than  three  years  after  he  had  undone  the  work  of 
the  Good  Parliament,  and  stripped  Wykeham  of  his 
temporalities,  we  find  him  contriving  the  nomination 
of  Archbishop  Sudbury  as  Chancellor — apparently 
in  order  to  make  him  and  the  Church  in  part  re- 
sponsible for  the  obnoxious  poll-tax. 

However  little  sympathy  Wyclif  might  have  had 
with  the  oppressed  labourers  and  serfs — and  we  know 
that  his  sympathies  for  them  were  keen — he  would 
certainly  be  revolted  by  this  double  retrogression. 
He  could  not  but  recognise  that  he  was  passing  out 
of  touch  with  the  King's  uncle ;  and  it  may  well 
have  happened  that  this  knowledge  strengthened 
and  confirmed  his  independence. 

So,  when  the  Duke  came  down  to  Oxford  (if  indeed 
he  came  in  person)  and  bade  him  suppress  his  con- 
science, and  leave  what  he  considered  the  idolatry  of 
the  mass  unchallenged,  he  positively  declined  to  fall 
in  with  the  suggestion.  Not  only  so,  but  he  thought 
it  necessary  to  make  his  position  in  the  matter  still 
more  plain.  This  he  did  by  means  of  a  Confession, 
addressed  apparently  ad  siws  Oxonienses,  and  dated 
on  the  feast  of  Saints  Gordian  and  Epimachus  (May 
loth),  in  the  year  1 38 1. 


252  John  Wyclif.  ri38i 

In  the  course  of  this  dignified  and  moderate  docu- 
ment, one  of  the  last  of  his  Latin  treatises  (for  he 
still  shrank  from  disturbing  the  belief  of  unlettered 
persons  on  so  critical  a  point  of  faith),  Wyclif  fully- 
admitted  that  there  was  a  sense  in  which  Christ's 
body  was  really  present  in  the  host.  But  he  "  could 
not  venture  to  say  that  the  consecrated  bread  was 
essentially,  substantially,  corporeally,  and  identically 
the  body  of  Christ."  There  were,  he  said,  three 
modes  of  presence  in  the  host — virtual,  spiritual,  and 
sacramental.  The  second  mode  implies  (prceexigit) 
the  first,  and  the  third  implies  the  other  two.  Christ's 
body  was  more  really  present  in  this  than  in  the  other 
sacraments ;  but  it  was  still  more  really  present  in 
heaven.  And  this  declaration  he  makes  in  agree- 
ment with  the  true  meaning  (logicam)  of  Scripture, 
of  the  holy  doctors,  and  of  the  canon  of  the  Roman 
Church.  It  was  only  such  as  could  not  believe  on 
all  this  evidence  who  started  the  idea  that  an  accident 
might  be  the  body  of  Christ.  We  may  well  hold 
that  "  by  virtue  of  the  words  of  Christ,  the  bread 
becomes  and  is,  in  miraculous  fashion,  the  body  of 
Christ,"  in  the  sense  that  the  parts  of  that  body 
are  spiritually  and  severally  in  the  consecrated  bread 
— and,  if  the  parts  of  the  body,  yet  more  certainly 
those  of  the  soul.  Yet  foolish  persons  continue  to 
raise  the  old  question  (idiotce  remurmurant ) y  asking 
how  this  could  possibly  be,  unless  Christ  were 
present  in  very  substance,  and  in  the  natural 
sense.  To  which  Wyclif  replies  that  he  explains 
it  precisely  as  the  Roman  doctors  explained  the 
incarnation. 


1381]  Condemned  at  Oxford.  253 

Wyclif's  conclusion  is  clearly  stated.  The  conse- 
crated host  is  naturally  bread  and  wine  ;  but  sacra- 
mentally  it  is  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  The 
sacrament  which  we  worship  is  not  the  substance  of 
bread  and  wine,  but  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 
But  the  "worshippers  of  accidents  "  adore  it  not  even 
as  the  simple  accident,  without  the  substance  ;  they 
worship  the  actual  sacramental  sign — the  bread  and 
wine — as  being  the  actual  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 
We  hold  to  Christ's  very  words  :  "  This  is  my  body." 
And  so  we  worship  the  body,  no  longer  the  visible 
bread  and  wine. 

Then  he  quotes  in  his  support  the  old  doctors  of 
the  first  millennium,  Ignatius,  Cyprian,  Ambrose, 
Augustine,  Jerome,  Nicholas  II.,  and  the  custom  of 
the  Church.  With  these  Wyclif  contrasts  the 
moderns,  who  dishonour  Christ's  body.  And  he 
ends  with  stern  words  against  those  who  receive  the 
testimony  of  Innocent  and  Raymundi  rather  than 
the  sense  of  Scripture,  and  the  later  rather  than  the 
earlier  doctrine. 

"Above  all  and  once  again,  woe  to  the  obstinate 
tongue  of  the  apostate  who  buries  the  Roman  Church 
beneath  a  pile  of  false  utterances,  whereby  he  pre- 
tends that  the  later  Church,  when  opposed  to  the 
earlier,  has  rectified  the  faith,  declaring  that  this  sac- 
rament is  an  accident  without  a  subject,  and  not 
actual  bread  and  wine,  as  both  the  Gospel  and  the 
canon  of  the  Church  affirm.  For  Augustine  is  our 
witness  that  no  priest  of  Christ  can  make  an  accident 
without  a  subject.  Yet  these  priests  of  Baal,  falsely 
after  the  pattern  of  their  father,  so  highly  extol  the 


254  John  Wyclif.  ri38i 

sacredness  of  this  accident  that  they  hold  every  other 
form  of  mass  unworthy  of  being  listened  to,  and 
pretend  that  all  who  dissent  from  their  falsehoods 
are  ignoramuses,  I  suppose,  from  some  university  in 
the  realms  of  darkness.  But  I  believe  that  the  truth 
will  finally  bring  them  into  subjection." 

There  seem  to  have  been  many  rejoinders  to  this 
Confession.  John  Tyssyngton,  a  friar  of  the  Order 
of  Franciscans,  wrote  a  terribly  long-winded  treatise 
in  order  to  confute  Wyclif  s  views  on  the  sacrament, 
which  Netter  has  preserved  amongst  the  "  wheat "  of 
his  promiscuous  gleaning  (in  the  Fasciculi  Zizanio- 
rum  cum  Triticd)  ;  and  an  Augustinian  friar,  Thomas 
Wynterton,  wrote  still  more  at  length  in  his  tract 
Absolutio.  Berton  and  Sutbraye,  too — the  latter 
a  monk  of  St.  Alban's,  and  both  of  them  members 
of  the  Synod  which  met  at  the  Blackfriars  priory  in 
the  following  year — took  up  their  pens  against  the 
irrepressible  heretic;  and  a  certain  " Duneltnensis" 
followed  suit.  It  is  clear  that  the  persistent  courage 
of  Wyclif,  which  inspired  him  to  stronger  utterance 
after  each  successive  attempt  to  crush  him,  gave 
abundant  provocation  and  stimulus  to  the  zealous 
orthodoxy  of  his  contemporaries  amongst  the  regu- 
lar and  secular  clergy. 

According  to  Henry  of  Knyghton,  canon  of 
Leicester,  who  wrote  and  died  in  the  reign  of 
Richard  II.,  and  was  therefore  a  contemporary  of 
Wyclif,  as  well  as  a  near  neighbour,  the  Rector  of 
Lutterworth  made  his  peace  with  the  Church  on  this 
occasion,  in  order  to  avoid  death,  and  "  abandoned 
his  defence  not  of  divine  wisdom  but  of  his  hollow 


13811  Condemned  at  Oxford.  255 

professions."  Here  is  the  Confession  as  given  by 
Knyghton — and  apparently  by  him  alone. 

"  I  knowleche  that  the  Sacrament  of  the  autar  is 
verry  Goddus  body  in  fourme  of  brede  :  but  it  is  in 
another  maner  Goddus  body  then  it  is  in  hevene. 
For  in  heven  it  is  sene  fote  (seven  feet  high)  in 
fourme  and  figure,  of  fleshe  and  blode.  But  in  the 
Sacrament  Goddus  body  is  be  (by)  myracle  of  God 
in  fourme  of  brede,  and  is  he  nouther  of  sene  fote, 
ne  in  mannes  figure.  But  as  a  man  leeves  for  to 
thenk  the  kynde  of  an  ymage,  whether  it  be  of  oke 
or  of  asshe,  and  settys  his  thought  in  him  of  whom 
is  the  ymage,  so  myche  more  schuld  a  man  leve  to 
thenk  on  the  kynde  of  brede,  but  thenk  upon  Christ, 
for  his  body  is  the  same  brede  that  is  the  Sacrament 
of  the  Autere,  and  with  alle  clennes,  alle  divocion, 
and  alle  charite  that  God  wolde  gif  him,  worshippe 
he  Christ ;  and  then  he  receyves  God  gostly,  more 
medefully  than  the  Prist  that  syngus  the  Masse  in 
lesse  charite.  For  the  bodely  etyng  ne  profytes 
nouth  to  soule,  but  in  als  mykul  as  the  soule  is  fedde 
with  charite.  This  sentence  is  provyde  be  Crist 
that  may  nought  lye.  For  as  the  Gospel  says, 
'  Crist,  that  night  that  he  was  betraiede  of  Judas 
Scarioth,  he  tok  brede  in  hise  hondes,  and  blesside 
it,  brak  it,  and  gaf  it  to  hise  disciplus  to  ete.'  For  he 
says,  and  may  not  lye,  '  This  is  my  body.'  " 

Clearly,  however,  this  is  no  retractation  at  all,  but 
only  a  statement  of  belief  in  general  terms,  such  as 
might  be  used  by  men  almost  as  opposite  in  their 
ultimate  conclusions  as  Wyclif  and  Courtenay.  It 
is  not  so  much  on  the  symbols  of  faith  that  devotees 


256  John  Wyclif.  n38l 

have  been  wont  to  quarrel  with  and  burn  each  other 
as  on  their  interpretations  of  the  symbols,  or  rather 
on  the  words  in  which  they  have  attempted  to 
express  their  interpretations.  Mr.  T.  Arnold  has 
hazarded  a  suggestion  that  Knyghton  and  his  friends, 
in  their  zeal  for  orthodoxy,  may  have  put  this  short 
English  statement  into  circulation  as  though  it  were 
the  substance  of  the  Confession,  or  the  actual  Con- 
fession, made  by  Wyclif  at  Oxford.  One  would 
imagine  that  if  his  enemies  could  have  brought 
themselves  to  such  a  point  of  dishonesty  they  would 
have  taken  care  to  make  a  better  bargain  with  their 
consciences. 

There  are  other  possible  explanations.  If  the 
"  I  knowleche "  paper  is  a  genuine  production  of 
Wyclif's,  and  if  it  was  at  any  time  written  or  ac- 
cepted as  a  confession,  in  order  to  protect  the  writer 
from  an  unpleasant  alternative,  the  immunity  was 
certainly  purchased  cheap.  But  it  might  have  been 
so.  There  would  have  been  nothing  dishonourable 
in  Wyclif  s  saying,  "  If  this  paper  will  satisfy  you, 
without  elaboration  and  comment,  I  am  willing  to 
sign  it,  for  it  expresses  my  honest  belief."  And 
there  would  be  nothing  very  extraordinary  in  Cour- 
tenay's  accepting  it  on  those  terms,  for  it  may  have 
saved  him  at  some  particular  moment  an  infinity  of 
trouble,  and  still  have  given  him  the  appearance  of  a 
triumph,  which  he  could  trust  the  friars  to  make  the 
most  of  throughout  the  country. 

This  hypothesis,  indeed,  is  scarcely  more  satis- 
factory than  the  other.  The  last  thing  which  Wyclif 
would  be  likely  to  do  of  his  own  free  will  would  be 


1381]  Condemned  at  Oxford,  257 

to  give  his  astute  foes  the  opportunity  of  proclaim- 
ing that  he  had  retracted  his  mature  and  deliberate 
opinions.  It  is  possible  enough  that  he  may  have 
written  such  a  paper  in  order  to  hand  it  in  at  the 
beginning  of  Berton's  inquiry  in  1 381,  or  of  one  of 
the  inquiries  held  by  Courtenay  in  the  following 
year,  as  an  abstract  or  text  for  elucidation.  In  that 
case  it  is  easy  to  understand  h'ow  the  document 
might  come  to  be  called,  as  it  is  by  Knyghton, 
a  "  refngium  mortis." 

That  Wyclif,  however,  was  not  merely  the  obsti- 
nate old  man  who  clings  to  his  opinions  with  senile 
perversity,  and  because  he  has  lost  the  spirit  of  con- 
ciliation, is  proved  by  an  admission  which  he  makes 
in  the  Trialogus,  written  after  his  withdrawal  to 
Lutterworth.  "  I  have  undertaken,"  he  says,  with- 
out indicating  when  or  to  whom  the  promise  was 
made — it  may  have  been  either  to  John  of  Gaunt  or 
to  Courtenay — "  not  to  use  out  of  the  schools  the 
term  '  substance  of  material  bread  and  wine.'  "  It 
must  have  cost  him  dear  to  make  even  this  condi- 
tional promise,  which  of  course  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  a  retractation. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 


WYCLIF  S    POOR    PRIESTS. 


HOUGH  much  that  is  interest- 
ing and  comparatively  new 
remains  to  be  said  about  the 
Peasants'  Revolt  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  we  have  no 
more  to  do  with  it  in  the 
present  volume  than  may  be 
necessary  to  show  how  much 
or  how  little  John  Wyclif 
contributed  to  bring  it  about,  and  in  what  manner 
it  affected  his  own  life  and  the  development  of  his 
ideas.  In  this  sense  it  is  at  least  as  important  as 
any  other  chapter  of  events  in  the  history  of  the 
early  reformation ;  for  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  panic  produced  amongst  the  governing 
classes  by  the  uprising  of  the  serfs  was  for  the 
religious  reformers  a  final  check  to  the  hope  of 
speedy  victory. 

258 


JOHN   WYCLIF. 

ENGRAVED    BY    E.    FINDEN,    FROM    A    PORTRAIT   ATTRIBUTED  TO   ANTONIO    MORO 
AN    H^RLOOM    IN    THE    RECTORY   OF  WYCLIF-ON-TEES. 


1381]  Wyclif  s  Poor  Priests.  259 

That  Wyclif  was  in  some  degree,  however  indi- 
rectly, responsible  for  the  popular  discontent  is 
probably  quite  as  true  as  the  charge  of  direct  com- 
plicity and  encouragement  is  ludicrously  false.  It 
was  alleged  against  him  by  his  enemies  that  he  de- 
liberately prepared  the  way  for  an  outbreak,  and 
that  certain  of  his  utterances  on  lordship,  and  on  the 
rights  of  subjects  as  against  their  rulers,  were  dis- 
tinctly subversive  in  their  character.  If  these  utter- 
ances had  been  written  and  spoken  in  English, 
instead  of  Latin,  there  would  have  been  a  great  deal 
more  force  in  the  accusation.  But,  even  as  it  was, 
the  doctrine  was  there ;  it  had  been  written  and 
preached  ;  every  disciple  of  Wyclif,  and  every  Poor 
Priest  to  whom  he  gave  his  commission,  had  learned 
it,  was  proud  of  it,  and  would  naturally  teach  it  on 
the  village  greens  and  on  the  roadside.  The  germs 
would  spread  and  grow  in  fertile  soil  ;  the  crop 
would  inevitably  spring  up,  grow  rank,  and  whiten  to 
the  harvest.  Is  anything  gained  by  denying  that 
principles  which  would  justify  revolution  in  one 
order  of  government  must  be  held  to  justify  it  in 
another,  and  that  Wyclif  himself  did  not  simply 
argue  from  divine  to  civil  government,  but  drew  his 
inferences  from  the  general  to  the  particular,  and 
claimed  that  the  Church  might  correct  the  Pope 
because  the  nation  might  justly  correct  its  own 
leaders  ? 

It  was  afterwards  stated  that  John  Ball,  on  the  eve 
of  his  execution,  declared  that  he  and  his  friends 
had  been  misled  by  the  teaching  of  Wyclif  and  his 
followers.      Even  if   it  were  so — and  we  may  see 


260  John  Wyclif.  ri38i 

reason  by  and  by  to  regard  this  statement  with  par- 
ticular caution  so  far  as  Ball  is  concerned — it  maybe 
fully  admitted  that  the  teaching  of  the  Wycliffites 
must  have 'helped  to  breathe  spirit  and  resolution 
into  the  rural  classes.  It  is  well  that  this  accusation 
should  be  taken  out  of  the  mouths  of  Wyclif's  ene- 
mies, who  not  only  gave  him  the  treatment  of  a 
malefactor  in  his  lifetime  but  burned  his  bones  and 
corroded  his  memory  when  he  was  dead  ;  but  it  is 
better  still  that  the  admission  should  come  frankly 
from  the  mouths  of  his  friends,  who  can  have  no 
object  in  denying  that  he  was  both  a  reproach  and 
a  danger  to  the  authorities  of  his  day. 

Wyclif  taught,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the  ultimate 
power  and  authority  resided  in  the  people  at  large. 
"  The  right  to  govern  depends  upon  good  govern- 
ment ;  there  is  no  moral  constraint  to  pay  tax  or 
tithe  to  bad  rulers,  either  in  the  Church  or  in  the 
State  ;  it  is  permitted  to  put  an  end  to  tyranny,  to 
punish  or  depose  unjust  rulers,  and  to  resume  the 
wealth  which  the  clergy  have  diverted  from  the 
poor."  No  further  argument  would  be  needed  to 
justify  starving  peasants  in  refusing  to  pay  an  op- 
pressive poll-tax,  when  their  only  means  of  paying 
it  was  to  take  the  food  out  of  the  mouths  of  their 
wives  and  children.  Wyclif  may  not  have  expected 
that  the  seed  which  he  sowed  would  bear  fruit  in  this 
particular  fashion,  and  with  such  raw  haste.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  was  not  a  man  of  delays  and  misgiv- 
ings, wherever  he  was  clear  and  convinced  in  matters 
of  principle.  It  is  true  that  he  recognised  the 
necessity  of  caution,  and  more  than  once  exposed  the 


1381]  Wyclif  s  Poor  Priests.  261 

folly  of  precipitate  action — as  on  the  noteworthy 
occasion  when  he  declined  to  advise  the  abolition  of 
Peter's  pence.  But  there  are  times  when  the  day 
of  caution  seems  to  have  passed,  and  nothing  but 
immediate  action  is  likely  to  serve  the  turn.  It  is 
hardly  possible  to  doubt  that  in  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
at  any  rate,  Wyclif  believed  that  such  a  time  had 
arrived.  He  might  have  been  a  Cranmer,  a  Knox, 
not  to  say  a  Cromwell,  if  the  opportunity  had  arisen 
for  him  to  strip  the  corrupted  Church  of  her  mere- 
tricious robes  and  jewels.  He  would  have  done  it. 
He  would  have  helped  John  of  Gaunt  to  do  it,  with 
the  supreme  confidence  of  an  honest  man  that  only 
in  this  way  could  the  Church  once  more  deserve  her 
majestic  title  as  the  bride  of  Christ. 

Where  the  State  was  concerned  apart  from  the 
Church,  Wyclif  evidently  recognised  that  he  had  not 
the  same  warrant  to  lay  down  a  law  of  conduct  for 
his  fellow-creatures.  In  any  case  he  did  not  press 
his  arguments  with  the  same  force  and  directness. 
They  went  just  as  much  to  the  root  of  the  matter 
for  one  form  of  government  as  for  another ;  but 
Wyclif  displayed  a  reserve  and  a  reticence  when 
speaking  of  the  existing  civil  organisation  which 
were  not  apparent  when  he  spoke  of  the  Christian 
community. 

In  a  volume  like  the  present  it  would  be  out  of 
place  to  examine  in  detail  the  scheme  of  the  two 
Latin  works  which  Wyclif  wrote  in  middle  life  on 
The  Lordship  of  God  and  on  Civil  Lordship.  The 
reader  who  will  be  satisfied  with  an  abstract  of  these 
treatises — which  are  based  in  large  measure,  as  has 


262  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

already  been  indicated,  on  the  works  of  Marsiglio, 
Ockham,  and  Fitzralph — may  be  referred  to  the 
account  which  has  been  given  of  them  by  Mr.  R. 
L.  Poole  (  Wycliffe  and  Movements  for  Reform). 

It  is  in  the  Civil  Lordship  that  we  should  look 
for  Wyclif's  more  deliberate  views  on  the  relations 
of  government  and  the  governed  ;  and  it  is  there,  in 
fact,  that  we  find  the  most  direct  statement  of  what 
has  been  called  his  "  subversive  doctrine."  He  con- 
siders two  distinct  phases  of  lordship,  the  natural 
and  the  civil,  the  latter  being  essentially  based  upon 
the  former.  Like  other  writers  of  his  age  on  kin- 
dred subjects,  he  takes  his  illustrations  and  his  paral- 
lels from  the  feudal  system,  and  especially  from  the 
mutual  relation  of  lordship  and  service,  upon  which 
the  whole  edifice  of  that  system  rests.  In  natural 
or  religious  lordship  he  finds  the  grand  peculiarity 
that  the  lord  paramount  is  the  only  absolute  lord, 
of  whom  each  individual  holds  directly,  and  to 
whom  alone  every  individual  owes  his  service.  But 
civil  lordship,  as  Mr.  Poole  interprets  his  argument, 
is  "  transitory  and  liable  to  modification  according 
to  the  changes  of  human  society.  It  becomes  there- 
fore to  Wycliffe  a  matter  of  slight  importance  what 
particular  form  of  government  be  adopted  in  any 
given  country,  since  its  only  claim  to  excellence 
depends  upon  its  relation  with  '  natural  lordship,' 
in  other  words  with  the  precepts  of  religion." 

Yet  the  Reformer's  ideal  is  certainly  not  what  we 
should  understand  under  the  name  of  theocracy. 
Logically  followed  out,  his  argument  would  land  us 
in  a  sort  of  communism,  practical  enough,  perhaps, 


1381]  Wyclif 's  Poor  Priests,  263 

if  all  mankind  had  first  attained  to  counsels  of  per- 
fection. 

Kings,  then,  are  responsible  to  the  lord  paramount 
from  whom  they  derive  their  lordship  ;  but  they  are 
lords  only  in  as  much  as  they  are  stewards  for  God, 
and  by  virtue  of  their  service.  And  their  service 
is  due  not  only  to  God  but  to  their  fellow-men.  As 
all  things  are  God's,  they  cannot  b'elong  to  the  stew- 
ard more  than  to  anyone  else,  and,  so  far  as  there  is 
any  property  in  them,  they  must  belong  in  common 
to  all.  Wyclif,  says  Mr.  Poole,  "  had  not  yet  learned 
the  effect  of  his  doctrine  in  practical  life,  as  dis- 
played in  the  rebellion  of  1381  ;  but  he  seems  con- 
scious of  the  danger  of  excusing  by  implication  des- 
ultory attempts  of  this  nature,  when  he  warns  his 
hearers  against  resort  to  force  except  it  be  likely  to 
put  an  end  to  tyranny." 

The  reasoning  of  these  Latin  treatises,  however, 
was  too  subtle  and  too  academic  to  reach  the  minds 
of  the  serfs,  except  as  interpreted  to  them  in  their 
own  language ;  and  the  interpretation  probably 
went  in  some  cases  beyond  the  intention  of  the 
original  text.  The  arguments  just  cited  are  clearly 
not  the  conclusions  of  a  visionary,  but  rather  the 
opportunism  of  a  reasonable  man,  who  desired  the 
gradual  development  of  the  State,  and  not  asocial 
cataclysm.  Wyclif  did  not  fear  a  revolution  in  the 
Church  itself.  He  doubtless  thought  that  it  would 
be  highly  beneficial  ;  but  there  is  nothing  to  show 
that  he  desired  or  even  anticipated  a  national  revolu- 
tion in  the  political  order  of  things.  If,  notwith- 
standing  this,  the   tendency   of    his   teaching  was 


264  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

towards  such  a  revolution,  who  will  say  that  he  was 
personally  and  morally  responsible  for  the  evils 
which  attended  the  Peasants'  Revolt  ? 

The  question  is  of  so  much  importance,  both  in 
the  history  of  the  period  and  in  the  biography  of 
Wyclif,  that  it  would  be  misleading  to  go  on  to  the 
details  of  this  Revolt  without  making  some  further 
effort  to  appreciate  the  relations  of  the  Reformer 
himself,  and  of  his  disciples  and  interpreters,  towards 
the  men  who  actually  rebelled  and  revolted  against 
the  intolerable  conditions  of  their  existence. 

Of  the  exact  manner  and  degree  in  which  Wyclif 
impressed  his  own  personality,  socially  and  reli- 
giously, on  the  poorest  of  his  fellow-countrymen 
throughout  his  laborious  life,  whether  as  parish  priest 
in  his  three  successive  livings  or  as  a  man  of  wide 
sympathies  and  self-sacrificing  benevolence,  we  have 
unfortunately  very  little  direct  evidence.  It  is  true 
that  we  cannot  require  much  evidence  of  this  kind 
for  the  mere  purpose  of  proof,  when  those  who 
think  least  favourably  of  his  actions  are  most  dis- 
posed to  magnify  their  influence  with  the  common 
people.  All  that  we  know  of  this  single-minded  de- 
votee of  truth  and  "  Goddis  law  "  (the  term  became 
a  symbol  and  watchword  of  the  Wycliffites*)  points 
one  way  as  to  his  absolute  superiority  to  personal 
aims  and  self-seeking.  It  was  one  of  the  central 
points  of  his  teaching  that  not  a  penny  should  be 
taken  from  the  trust-funds  of  the  Church,  which  are 
the  patrimony  of  the  poor,  either  for  "  covetise  of 

*  Henry  of  Knyghton  says  :   "  They  used  such  an  expression  in  all 
their  speech,  always  asserting  the  law  of  God,   '  Goddislawe.'  " 


1381]  Wyclifs  Poor  Priests.  265 

priests "  or  to  support  the  pomp  of  Rome.  He 
steadfastly  refused  to  be  a  pluralist ;  and  even  if  he 
supplied  his  necessities  from  the  proceeds  of  his 
benefices  at  Fillingham,  Ludgarshall,  and  Lutter- 
worth— which  is  doubtful — we  may  be  sure  that  he 
spent  all  the  remainder  upon  his  parishioners.  He 
could  not  have  preached  the  doctrine  of  poverty  as 
he  did  whilst  lavishing  on  himself  what  he  did  not 
need  for  his  sustenance.  If  he  had  been  inconsistent 
on  that  one  point,  above  all  others,  his  enemies 
would  have  made  England  ring  with  it,  and  the 
books  of  the  friars,  which  denounce  him  so  fiercely 
on  the  score  of  his  heresy,  would  have  abounded  in 
gibes  and  sneers  at  his  hypocrisy. 

The  fact  that  Wyclif  was  King's  chaplain,  and 
occupied  a  position  as  lecturer  or  professor  of  di- 
vinity at  Oxford,  at  the  same  time  that  he  held  a 
living  in  the  Church,  is  nothing  to  the  contrary  of 
what  has  been  stated  above.  The  ordinary  pluralist 
took  his  two  or  more  benefices,  his  two  or  more  pre- 
bends simultaneously,  as  favours  or  rewards,  though 
he  was  rarely  capable  of  performing  all  the  corre- 
sponding duties,  and  was  generally  content  to  hold 
sinecure  orifices.  Wyclifs  chaplaincy  and  lecture- 
ship, however  they  may  have  been  paid,  could  not 
be  enjoyed  without  the  full  performance  of  stipu- 
lated work.  Clearly  the  absence  of  a  country  rector 
for  part  of  the  year  in  London,  and  another  part  of 
the  year  at  Oxford,  especially  in  those  days  of  slow 
travelling,  must  have  interfered  to  some  extent  with 
his  parish  duties;  but  we  know  that  Wyclif  main- 
tained assistants  on  whom  he  could  rely,  men  whom 


266  John  Wyclif,  [1381 

he  trained  to  preach  and  to  translate  the  Bible,  as 
well  as  to  explain  and  illustrate  it  by  precept  and 
example. 

Chaucer's  picture  of  the  secular  priest  may  well 
have  been  thought  of  and  mentioned  in  connection 
with  Wyclif ;  and  as  we  are  trying  to  realise  what 
he  must  have  been  to  his  poorest  neighbours,  and 
what  his  Poor  Priests  must  have  been  to  the  serfs 
through  his  influence,  it  cannot  be  idle  to  recall  the 
picture  here.  Might  it  not  be  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  the  old  Rector  of  Lutterworth,  but  recently 
dead  when  the  Canterbury  Tales  were  completed, 
had  unwittingly  sat  for  the  portrait  of  the  "  good 
man  of  religion "  ?  We  may  recognise  here  the 
moral  lineaments  of  Wyclif  s  character — apart  from 
his  controversies  and  logomachies — at  least  as  con- 
fidently as  we  can  see  the  actual  features  of  his  face 
in  the  Denbigh  portrait. 

•  !  A  good  man  was  ther  of  religioun, 
And  was  a  pore  Persoun  of  a  toun  ; 
But  riche  he  was  of  holy  thought  and  werk . 
He  was  also  a  lerned  man,  a  clerk, 
That  Christes  gospel  truly  wolde  preche ; 
His  parischens  devoutly  wolde  he  teche     .     .     . 
But  rather  wolde  he  geven  out  of  dowte 
Unto  his  pore  parischens  aboute, 
Of  his  offrynge,  and  eek  of  his  substance. 
He  cowde  in  litel  thing  han  suffisance     .     .     . 
This  noble  ensample  unto  his  scheep  he  gaf, 
That  ferst  he  wrought,  and  after  that  he  taught. 
Out  of  the  gospel  he  the  wordes  caught, 
And  this  figure  he  added  yet  therto — 
That  if  gold  rust,  what  shulde  yron  do  ? 
For  if  a  Prest  be  foul,  on  whom  we  trust, 
No  wonder  is  a  lewed  man  to  rust     .     .     . 


t38il  Wyclif's  Poor  Priests.  267 

To  drawe  folk  to  heven  by  fairnesse, 

By  good  ensample,  was  his  busynesse. 

But  it  were  eny  person  obstinat, 

What  so  he  were  of  high  or  low  estat, 

rtim  wolde  he  snybbe  sharply  for  the  nones     .     .     . 

.     .     .     Christes  lore,  and  his  apostles'  twelve, 

He  taught,  and  ferst  he  folwed  it  himselve." 

As  to  Wyclif's  political  sympathies  with  his  poor- 
est fellow-countrymen  there  is  no  question.  He 
protests  strongly  in  his  later  writings  against  abuses 
and  oppressions  to  which  Englishmen  were  exposed, 
such  as  the  inequality  of  the  law,  the  venality  of  the 
lawyers,  the  falsification  of  legal  documents,  the 
subornation  of  perjury,  the  perversion  of  justice,  the 
manifold  extortions  and  fraudulent  enforcement 
of  serfdom  and  labour.  It  has  been  urged  that  he 
was  secured  as  a  popular  champion  in  1381,  and  that 
his  greater  popularity  from  this  time  forward  was 
due  to  a  political  (as  well  as  a  religious)  new  depart- 
ure in  the  year  just  named.  At  any  rate  the  actual 
revolt  of  the  peasants  may  well  have  stimulated  his 
political  sympathies. 

It  is  no  more  possible  to  fix  a  precise  date  for  the 
first  commissioning  of  Wyclif's  Priests  than  it  is  to 
say  when  the  earliest  of  his  extant  English  sermons 
was  preached,  or  when  he  began  to  translate  the 
New  Testament.  It  has  already  been  said  that  the 
plan  of  some  of  his  Sunday  Gospel  sermons  is  such 
as  to  suggest  that  they  were  mere  skeletons  prepared 
for  the  use  of  the  disciples  whom  he  sent  forth  to 
the  byways  of  England,  to  win  the  souls  of  the 
poorest  hinds,  and  to  tear  away  the  veil  of  ignorance 
or  prejudice  which  had  hitherto  hidden  the  Scrip- 


268  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

tures  from  them.  His  complete  version,  as  we  know, 
occupied  the  last  few  years  of  his  life,  but  we  cannot 
say  when  the  first  manuscript  of  his  first  translation 
began  to  be  copied  out  and  distributed.  It  seems  to 
be  a  reasonable  belief  that  the  earlier  copies  were 
made  for  his  first  missionary  priests,  and  that  these 
missionaries  —  volunteers,  it  may  be,  who  asked 
nothing  better  than  to  put  his  precepts  into  prac- 
tice— set  out  from  Oxford,  or  Lutterworth,  before 
anything  like  a  systematic  mission  could  be  said  to 
exist. 

There  is  no  ground  to  suppose  that  Wyclif  in- 
tended or  desired  to  create  an  Order,  in  any  sense  of 
the  term.  He  had  seen  too  much  of  the  perversion 
of  good  intentions  of  that  sort  to  allow  him  to  enter- 
tain such  a  design.  But  unless  the  mission  of  the 
Priests  had  been  in  some  measure  systematic,  it  is 
unlikely  that  his  contemporaries,  friends  and  enemies 
alike,  would  have  mentioned  it  as  one  of  the  salient 
facts  of  his  career. 

It  is  easy  to  believe  that  Oxford  supplied  Wyclif 
with  many  an  enthusiast  willing  to  don  the  sheep- 
skin and  sandals,  and  to  abandon  all — ease  and  cul- 
ture and  genial  companionship — for  his  regimen  of 
apostolic  poverty.  It  is  indeed  impossible  not  to 
believe  that  such  a  cause,  at  such  a  moment,  at- 
tracted scores  of  men  in  that  home  and  nursery  of 
fervent  enthusiasms,  which  for  seven  hundred  years 
has  never  failed  to  furnish  either  pioneers  for  a  haz- 
ardous enterprise  or  leaders  for  a  forlorn  hope.  But 
undoubtedly  a  certain  number  of  the  Poor  Priests 
were  humble   and    unlettered    men,  who   had   been 


LUTTERWORTH  CHURCH. 

PARTLY  CONTEMPORANEOUS  WITH   WYCLIF. 


1381]  Wyclif's  Poor  Priests.  269 

touched  by  the  fire  of  their  master's  zeal  in  his  rural 
home  at  Lutterworth.  Their  plain  speech  and  lack 
of  refinements  would  be  amongst  their  most  hopeful 
qualifications  for  the  task  entrusted  to  them.  They 
went  forth  to  speak  and  associate  with  their  kind, 
clad  in  a  distinctive  robe  of  undressed  wool,  brown 
and  rough  as  the  russet  apples  in  their  homely  gar- 
den plots,  relying  for  food  and  shelter  on  the  good- 
will of  their  hearers,  forbidden  to  thrive  by  their 
calling  like  the  mendicants  of  an  Order  that  was  no 
longer  poor,  and  rich  only  in  their  knowledge  of  the 
word  of  God,  or  haply  in  the  possession  of  a  roll  of 
Scripture  in  their  mother-tongue,  and  a  few  of  their 
master's  sermons. 

The  monks  and  friars  and  secular  clergymen  who 
came  at  times  to  listen  to  these  uncouth  wayfarers, 
and  to  deride  their  appearance  and  their  ignorance 
before  the  simple  folk  whom  they  had  gathered  to- 
gether, applied  to  them  a  term  of  contempt  which 
had  long  been  in  use  on  the  continent  for  religious 
fanatics  of  the  humbler  sort.  The  English  "loller" 
of  Langland's  day  was,  indeed,  a  mere  loafer  and 
idler,  not  necessarily  religious,  or  a  babbler  of  any 
kind.     Thus,  in  the  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman — 

M  All  that  have  their  health 
And  their  eyen-sight, 
And  limbs  to  labour  with. 
And  use  the  loller's  life, 
Live  against  God's  law, 
And  love  of  holy  church." 

"  Lollard  "  and  "  loller"  in  fact,  did  not  mean  quite 
the  same  thing,  though  the  words  descended  from 


270  John  Wyclif.  11381 

a  common  ancestor.  The  English  loller  was  a  sturdy 
beggar  who  lived  on  his  fellow-men,  and  in  this  sense 
the  term  would  have  suited  many  of  the  mendicant 
friars — "  great  lubbers  and  long,  that  loth  were  to 
swynke,"  as  Langland  calls  them.  But  the  foreign 
congener  of  the  loller  was  a  religious  enthusiast  who 
seems  to  have  obtained  his  nickname  from  the  friars 
themselves — a  fourteenth-century  ante-type  of  the 
modern  revivalist,  or  Salvation  Army  preacher,  who 
would  have  nothing  to  say  to  the  regular  Orders. 
An  authority  quoted  by  Ducange,  referring  to  the 
year  1309,  speaks  of  "  quidam  hypocrites  gyrovagi, 
qui  Lollardi  sive  Deum-laudantes  vocabantur."  The 
Praise-Gods  of  Wyclif's  time  accepted  and  kept  the 
name  for  themselves,  and  have  been  known  to  history 
as  Lollards  ever  since. 

Sundry  references  are  found  in  Wyclif's  later 
works — as  in  the  Trialogus  and  the  De  Ecclesia — to 
the  institution  of  the  Poor  Priests. 

"  It  seems  to  be  a  meritorious  thing/'  he  says  in 
one  place,  "  to  associate  good  priests  together,  since 
Christ,  the  pattern  of  every  good  work,  did  likewise. 
But  when  they  ask  for  alms  let  these  priests  be  par- 
ticularly cautious  in  these  three  respects.  First,  let 
them  move  from  place  to  place,  and  not  become 
established  (hceredati),  for  they  are  not  confirmed 
without  regard  to  their  good  behaviour.  But  if  they 
live  worthily  and  uprightly,  let  them  enjoy  temporal 
gifts  in  moderation.  Secondly,  let  their  number, 
their  locality,  and  the  time  of  their  appointment  be 
well  considered,  for  both  excess  and  deficiency  in 
these  points  introduce  an  occasion  of  error,  according 


THE   PRIESTS'    DOORWAY,  LUTTERWORTH   CHURCH,  THROUGH  WHICH 
WYCLIF'S  BODY  WAS  TAKEN. 


1381]  Wyclif  's  Poor  Priests.  2  7 1 

to  the  opinion  of  discreet  men.  Thirdly,  let  them 
be  given  to  the  duties  which  befit  the  priesthood,  for 
want  of  habitude  as  well  as  indolence  unfits  men  for 
this  work ;  and  it  is  not  every  occupation,  as  the 
keeping  of  a  booth,  or  hunting,  or  devotion  to  games 
or  to  chess,  which  is  becoming  to  a  priest,  but  studious 
acquaintance  with  God's  law,  plain  preaching  of  the 
word  of  God,  and  devout  prayerfulness."  Especially 
they  should  be  good  preachers,  for  in  this  way  Christ 
conquered  his  kingdom  ;  "  but  let  him  who  does  not 
preach  publicly  exhort  in  private.  .  .  .  And  if 
anyone  is  specially  skilled  in  training  priests  on  this 
model,  he  has  a  power  which  comes  of  God,  and 
possesses  merit  through  grace  when  he  accomplishes 
such  a  work." 

However  obnoxious  the  Poor  Priests,  and  the 
independent  Lollards,  of  whom  John  Ball  was  a 
type,  may  have  been  to  the  secular  and  religious 
clergy,  they  were  far  from  being  universally  unpopu- 
lar amongst  the  higher  classes.  Walsingham  says, 
and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  him,  that  "  lords  and 
the  highest  men  in  the  land,  as  well  as  many  of  the 
people,  supported  them  in  their  preaching,  and 
favoured  those  who  taught  erroneous  conclusions — 
and  very  naturally,  since  they  assigned  such  great 
authority  to  laymen,  even  the  authority  to  deprive 
ecclesiastics  and  religious  corporations  of  their  tempo- 
ralities." 

Courtenay  refers  to  them  in  a  letter  to  the  Carmelite 
friar  Peter  Stokys  of  Oxford,  in  1382,  as  "  wolves  in 
sheep's  clothing,"  sons  of  perdition,  preaching  their 
false    conclusions  under  a   cloak  of  great    sanctity. 


272  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

No  name  was  too  bad  for  them  in  the  mouths  of 
regulars  and  seculars  alike,  especially  after  the  Revolt. 
So  long  as  the  bishops  and  monks  had  no  charge  to 
bring  against  them  except  one  of  unsound  doctrine, 
the  men  of  that  comparatively  liberal  age  paid  little 
attention  to  the  ecclesiastical  censure  ;  but  so  soon 
as  suspicion  and  prejudice  attached  to  them  in  con- 
nection with  the  outbreak  of  the  peasants,  the  Arch- 
bishop was  able  to  deal  them  some  shrewd  and  effect- 
ive blows.  Nevertheless  we  shall  see  that  the  later 
English  Lollards — that  is,  Wyclif 's  Poor  Priests  and 
their  converts — were  stronger  than  their  persecutors, 
more  enduring  than  the  Wycliffite  school  at  Oxford, 
and  sufficiently  pertinacious  to  bridge  the  darkness 
of  the  fifteenth  century  with  an  unbroken  line  of  light. 
We  have  been  at  such  pains  to  establish  the  con- 
nection between  the  early  Reformation  and  the 
Peasants'  Revolt  that  we  may  have  lost  sight  for 
a  moment  of  the  main  and  prevailing  causes  of 
this  half-abortive  revolution.  But  if  anyone  could 
be  found  in  those  days  capable  of  maintaining  that 
Wyclif  and  his  disciples  were  primarily  responsible 
for  the  Revolt,  it  would  be  enough  to  ask  in  reply 
what  would  have  been  likely,  and  indeed  certain, 
to  happen  at  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century 
even  if  the  last  of  the  Schoolmen,  the  first  of  the 
English  Reformers,  had  never  written,  preached,  or 
lived.  Assuredly  we  might  account  for  and  justify 
the  rising  —  as  every  historian  worthy  of  atten- 
tion has  held  it  to  have  been  justified — without 
bringing  Wyclif  into  the  reckoning  at  all.  Let  us 
consider  for  a  brief  space  what  were  the  principal 


1381]  Wyclif's  Poor  Priests.  273 

causes  of  the  outbreak  which  alarmed  all  England 
at  this  important  and  most  interesting  crisis — an 
outbreak  which,  if  organisation  had  been  possible, 
and  if  competent  leaders  had  been  forthcoming, 
might  have  still  more  deeply  modified  the  whole 
future  history  of  the  country,  even  if  it  had  not  then 
and  there  set  up  a  durable  commonwealth  on  a  broad 
basis  of  enfranchisement. 

First  and  foremost  amongst  these  causes  must  be 
reckoned  the  obsolescence  and  gradual  decay  of  the 
feudal  system,  owing  not  so  much  to  the  Anglo- 
French  dynastic  wars — which  were  but  one  chapter 
of  a  long  story — as  to  certain  natural  and  logical 
developments  of  feudalism,  sure  to  take  place  sooner 
or  later,  and  already  in  operation  when  the  four- 
teenth century  began.  Feudalism  could  not  endure 
more  than  a  century  or  two,  at  any  rate  in  its  origi- 
nal form,  in  any  country  not  perfectly  secure  against 
the  risk  of  foreign  wars.  It  arose  out  of  anarchy 
and  general  insecurity,  and  was  the  best  attainable 
device  for  supplying  the  two  great  needs  of  human- 
ity under  such  conditions,  protection  for  the  weak 
and  military  aid  for  the  ruler.  But  its  deterioration 
as  a  system  began  at  the  very  moment  of  its  estab- 
lishment, and  sprang  from  the  same  causes  which 
had  called  it  into  existence.  Moreover  this  deteri- 
oration proceeded  most  rapidly  in  a  country  where 
feudalism  had  been  imposed  on  a  subject  race  by  their 
conquerors.  .  The  combination  of  the  weak  gradu- 
ally made  them  strong,  and  the  dependence  of  the 
rulers  on  the  lower  grades,  both  for  men-at-arms  and 

for  supplies  of  money,. gradually  made  them  weak. 
18 


2  74  John  Wyclif.  11381 

When  this  inevitable  process  had  set  in,  the  decay 
of  feudalism  was  a  mere  question  of  time.  The 
lord  paramount  had  to  sell  his  authority  fragment  by 
fragment  for  the  service  which  he  required  ;  the 
mesne  lords  passed  from  the  attitude  of  guaranteeing 
protection  to  that  of  relying  on  those  who  fought, 
worked,  and  paid  for  them.  The  ultimate  essentials 
of  human  society — the  valour,  the  sinews,  the  taxes 
of  the  multitude — assured  for  them  the  final  mas- 
tery. That  seems  to  be  the  central  law  of  historical 
development,  under  every  species  of  government 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest;  and  to  struggle 
against  it — save  for  purposes  of  delay — is  as  futile 
as  it  is  puerile.  Before  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  Englishmen  had  seen  this  process  in  active 
operation.  De  Montfort  and  his  friends  may  not 
have  been  philosophers,  and  may  not  have  felt  the 
full  significance  of  their  acts ;  but  at  the  moment 
when  they  created  a  new  instrument  of  government 
out  of  the  English  Commons  they  were  giving  effect 
to  the  fundamental  law,  under  which  the  power  of 
feudalism  was  now  rapidly  dwindling  away. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  growth  of  the 
farming  and  merchant  classes,  the  expansion  of  the 
towns,  the  increasing  powers  of  chartered  govern- 
ments and  guilds — successively  effects  and  causes  of 
feudal  decay — brought  into  existence  a  middle  class 
of  new-rich  men,  whether  rising  from  below  or 
descending  from  the  classes  of  barons  and  knights. 
City  men  like  the  Fitzwarrens,  Fitzwalters,  Whitting- 
tons,  Philipots,  and  Walworths,  and  their  parallels 
in  the  sea-ports  and   manufacturing  towns,  gradu- 


I38r  Wyclif's  Poor  Priests.  275 

ally  amassed  wealth,  and,  when  opportunity  offered, 
bought  up  the  interests  of  such  of  the  older  barons 
and  knights  as  were  compelled  to  part  with  their 
estates  and  manors.  They  bought,  of  course,  the  vil- 
leins and  serfs  together  with  the  land,  or  at  any  rate 
they  bought  the  power  to  exact  service  from  these 
weakest  units  of  the  population.  The  amount  and 
kind  of  service  due  from  each,  or  the  rent  paid  in  lieu 
of  service,  was  set  forth  in  the  transferred  title-deeds, 
which  were  proof  and  evidence  of  hereditary  servi- 
tude. The  villeins,  free  labourers,  and  smaller  farm- 
ers who  had  gradually  risen  above  the  class  of  serfs, 
whether  by  redemption  or  by  free  grant  of  immunity, 
often  continued  for  a  long  time  to  render  some  ac- 
knowledgment to  the  lord  of  the  manor,  in  the 
shape  of  work  or  its  equivalent ;  and  a  sentiment  of 
personal  loyalty  would  maintain  the  custom  of  this 
acknowledgment  even  in  cases  where  it  had  ceased 
to  be  legally  due.  But  when  the  baron  or  manorial 
lord  had  brought  himself  into  difficulties,  by  luxury, 
travel,  war,  or  chivalry,  and  his  estate  had  been  sold 
to  a  new-comer,  sentiment  had  no  more  to  say  in  the 
matter,  and  the  subordinate  folk  stood  towards  the 
stranger  on  their  legal  or  moral  rights.  The  feudal 
link  was  in  these  instances  finally  severed,  and  only 
the  serfs  and  the  more  subservient  labourers  remained 
thus  closely  addicted  to  the  soil. 

Towards  the  middle  of  Edward's  reign  the  serf, 
the  villein,  the  large  manor-farmer  himself,  eager 
to  establish  complete  independence,  or  occasionally 
fired  by  mere  ambition  or  greed,  was  ready  for  the 
first  opportunity  of  cancelling  every  record  of  ser- 


276  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

vice;  and  the  chance  of  doing  this  simply,  safely, 
and  effectively  was  one  of  the  more  immediate  in- 
ducements of  the  great  mobilisation  of  138 1. 

Beyond  the  causes  already  mentioned  which  had 
tended  to  weaken  the  barons  and  knights,  and  to 
strengthen  the  labouring  classes,  there  was  one  which 
did  not  come  into  operation  much  before  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  when  its  effect  was  sud- 
den, remarkable,  and  decisive.  This  was  the  nota- 
ble decrease  of  the  population,  brought  about  by 
two  entirely  distinct  occurrences — war  and  plague. 
In  estimating  the  effect  of  these  occurrences,  statis- 
tics are  not  wholly  to  be  relied  on.  There  were  no 
means  in  those  days  of  taking  them  exactly,  or  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  available  means  were  scrupu- 
lously employed.  The  whole  tendency  of  the  time 
would  be  towards  wild  exaggeration.  The  word 
"  million  "  in  the  mouth  of  a  fourteenth-  or  fifteenth- 
century  chronicler  must  be  taken  as  an  easy  approxi- 
mation, not  as  a  verified  figure.  It  has  been  said  that 
more  than  half  the  population  of  England  perished 
by  the  plague  in  1 348-1 3 50 — a  statement  which  is 
certainly  not  proved  by  the  partial  computations 
made  for  London,  Bristol,  and  Norwich.  The  ques- 
tion, however,  need  not  be  argued  here.  It  is 
enough  for  the  purpose  to  allow  that  the  repeated 
visitations  of  the  Black  Death,  the  worst  of  which 
occurred  in  the  years  just  mentioned,  in  1 361-1362, 
1368,  and  1374,  supplemented  by  the  French  and 
Scottish  wars,  made  great  havoc  throughout  the 
country,  and  in  the  more  unfortunate  districts  very 
seriously  diminished  the  population. 


1381]  Wyclif's  Poor  Priests.  277 

It  has  been  urged,  and  it  is  doubtless  partially 
true,  that  this  depletion  of  men  improved  the  condi- 
tion of  the  free  labourers  who  were  left,  and  who 
were  now  able  to  command  a  higher  price  for  their 
labour.  Of  course  it  must  have  been  so  in  many 
instances.  The  figures  adduced  by  Mr.  Thorold 
Rogers  in  his  History  of  Pricey — irrefragable  as 
statistics,  but  perhaps  safer  within  particular  areas 
than  for  general  application — sufficiently  attest  the 
fact.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  nothing  like 
a  universal  or  even  a  general  amelioration  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  poorest  classes  can  have  taken  place  in 
England  in  consequence  of  the  shrinking  population. 
Still  less  could  any  such  amelioration  have  lasted  up 
to  1380.  The  evils  of  plague  and  war  far  outweighed 
their  advantages  to  the  survivors.  If  wages  in- 
creased, so  also  did  the  price  of  various  commodities 
and  necessities  of  existence  ;  and  the  attempt  of  the 
free  labourers  to  sell  their  work  for  anything  more 
than  the  indispensable  requirements  of  life  was 
promptly  met  by  royal  ordinances  (on  the  advice  of 
Parliament)  in  1349,  1350,  and  succeeding  years, 
strictly  limiting  the  remuneration  of  labour. 

Moreover  the  scarcity  of  labour  was  counteracted 
by  the  dereliction  of  farms — and  we  need  not  travel 
from  our  own  generation  to  appreciate  the  fact  that 
a  large  efflux  of  labourers  from  the  country  is  not 
enough  of  itself  to  raise  the  wages  of  those  who 
remain.  The  various  causes  which  were  at  work 
acted  and  reacted  on  each  other.  Landlords  and  even 
clergymen  quitted  their  posts  and  crowded  into  the 
capita-!.-    Serfs   risked  the  penalties  of  outlawry  and 


278  John  Wyclif.  ri38l 

roamed  about  in  quest  of  high  pay  or  more  abun- 
dant food,  thus  rapidly  bringing  down  the  rate  of 
wages  even  below  the  price  which  had  been  fixed 
by  law.  And  then  the  stewards  of  the  manors,  in 
order  to  check  the  migration  of  free  labourers  as 
well  as  of  the  serfs,  committed  in  many  cases  the 
crowning  injustice  of  falsifying  their  service-rolls, 
destroying  some  records  and  perhaps  inventing 
others,  so  that  the  sons  of  men  who  had  bought 
their  freedom  with  a  price  found  themselves  claimed 
and  held  to  labour  after  a  life  of  comparative  lib- 
erty. It  is  more  than  probable  that  the  rural  classes 
were  in  a  worse  condition  in  1380  than  they  had 
been  in  1340. 

It  is  only  when  we  keep  in  mind  these  various 
predisposing  causes,  and  consider  how  long  and 
systematically  the  English  peasant  had  been  pre- 
pared for  his  revolt,  that  we  can  appreciate  the  effect 
of  the  taxation  laid  upon  him  in  the  reign  of  Richard 
II.  In  an  evil  hour,  in  the  first  year  of  Richard's 
reign,  the  King's  Council  determined  to  raise  money 
by  means  of  a  capitation  tax — taxa  hactenus  inau- 
dita,  as  Walsingham  describes  it — which  was  gradu- 
ated according  to  the  position  and  age  of  the 
contributor,  down  to  a  minimum  of  a  groat  for 
every  child  above  the  age  of  sixteen.  This  first 
poll-tax  was  proposed  in  1377  or  1378,  and  levied  in 
1379.*    It  was  intensely  unpopular,  and  the  amount 

*  The  record  of  dates  is  a  little  confusing  ;  but  it  is  useful  to  re- 
member that  a  poll-tax  in  the  fourteenth  century  took  longer  to  col- 
lect than  an  income-tax  in  the  nineteenth,  so  that  the  whole  field  of 
production  might  not  be  covered  by  the  King's  officers  for  a  year  or 


1381]  Wydif's  Poor  Priests.  279 

which  it  produced  was  not  sufficient  to  cover  the 
estimate  of  the  King's  advisers.  In  1380  they  re- 
peated the  levy,  making  it  still  more  stringent  by 
lowering  the  minimum  age  to  fifteen.  It  was  in  the 
midst  of  this  fatal  political  blundering  that  John  of 
Gaunt,  who  seems  to  have  been  largely  responsible 
for  it,  thought  it  wise,  as  no  doubt  it  was  from  his 
own  point  of  view,  to  associate  the  head  of  the 
English  Church  with  his  financial  policy.  On  the 
4th  of  July,  1379,  Archbishop  Sudbury  was  nomi- 
nated to  the  Chancellorship ;  and  in  accepting  this 
post  the  unlucky  prelate,  who  had  so  faithfully  ad- 
hered to  the  fortunes  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster, 
signed  his  own  death-warrant.  He  held  office  in 
the  Parliament  which  granted  the  second  poll-tax, 
and  at  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the  King's  Coun- 
cil he  had  the  courage  to  oppose  the  suggested 
withdrawal  of  the  tax  in  face  of  the  resistance  of  the 
people.  It  is  clear  that  he  shared  with  the  Duke, 
and  with  Sir  Robert  Hales,  the  Treasurer,  a  burden 
of  fierce  hatred  from  the  exasperated  tax-payers. 

Hitherto  the  taxes  had  been  levied  on  land,  on 
knight's  fees,  movables,  wool  and  leather,  which 
affected  the  serfs  not  at  all,  and  the  free  labourers 
very  little.  Talliage,  indeed,  had  fallen  on  the 
demesne  lands  as  well  as  on  the  towns,  and  this  was 
virtually  a  poll-tax  ;  but  it  had  scarcely  touched  the 
labouring  classes.  Nevertheless  its  unpopularity 
was  so  great  that  it  had  been  finally  abolished  in  the 

more  after  a  particular  tax  had  been  authorised.  We  are  expressly 
told  that  the  tax  imposed  by  Parliament  in  1380  was  still  being  col- 
lected in  June,  1381. 


28o 


John  Wyclif. 


[1381 


reign  of  Edward.  A  poll-tax  of  universal  incidence 
had  been  proposed  before  1377,  but  never  actually 
levied.  The  impost  in  the  year  1379  was  the  first 
which  had  fallen  directly  upon  the  poorest  classes 
in  the  realm  ;  and  it  sufficed  to  light  up  the  smoulder- 
ing fire  which  was  only  waiting  for  a  wind  to  puff  it 
into  flame. 


CHAPTER  XV, 


THE    HEADLESS    REBELLION. 


HE  true  fascination  of  history, 
whether  it  be  the  history  of 
a  race  or  of  an  individual,  of 
a  national  government  or  of  a 
moral  revolution,  is  never  real- 
ised until  we  have  made  a  pro- 
longed and  laborious  effort  to 
reconstruct  what  time  has  bur- 
ied in  the  dust.  When  at  last, 
with  patient  toil  and  keen  imagination,  the  student 
has  succeeded  in  reaching  a  point  from  which  it  is 
possible  to  see,  not  the  sheer  realities,  but  the 
types  and  tendencies  and  probabilities  of  a  half- 
forgotten  age,  he  begins  for  the  first  time  to  un- 
derstand the  satisfaction  of  the  traveller  who  has 
struck  into  an  unknown  land,  or  of  the  explorer 
who  has  laid  bare  the  tombs  and  temples  of  an 
ancient  civilisation. 

281 


282  John   Wyclif.  [1381 

If  we  could  penetrate  more  deeply  into  the  his- 
torical sources  of  human  action,  and  trace  each 
visible  effect  back  through  its  proper  channel  to  the 
centre  of  its  causation,  how  dazzling  would  be  the 
light  which  would  thus  be  shed  on  the  course  of 
every  national  and  personal  development.  How 
interesting,  for  example,  it  would  be  if  we  could 
recognise  the  exact  measure  of  the  survival  of  race 
antagonism  between  the  English  serf  and  the  feudal 
and  manorial  lords,  who  had  inherited  three  cen- 
turies of  mutual  enmity.  How  more  than  interest- 
ing to  mark  the  descent  from  the  political  philosophy 
of  Greece — or  it  may  be  only  the  separate  and  tran- 
sitory re-creation — of  that  idea  of  universal  equality 
which  was  the  very  motive  and  mainspring  of  the 
Peasants'  Revolt !  But  to  pursue  such  inquiries  as 
these  would  be  a  task  out  of  proportion  with  the 
scope  of  the  present  work,  much  as  it  might  help  us 
to  comprehend  the  last  few  years  of  Wyclif  s  life. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say  for  how  long  a  period 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  the  serfs  had  been  in  a 
state  of  masked  revolt.  Oppression  and  over-taxa- 
tion, callous  injustice  and  blind  revenge,  grinding 
servitude  and  malignant  hate,  disorders  of  a  hundred 
kinds,  robbery  and  violence  on  the  highways  by 
men  whose  demoralisation  arose  out  of  resistance 
to  intolerable  wrongs,  seditious  talk  and  seditious 
plots,  clamourings  for  leaders  and  abortive  attempts 
to  lead,  attacks  on  the  houses  of  the  barons  and  on 
the  King's  officers,  no  security  for  innocence  and  no 
encouragement  for  loyalty,  all  the  essentials  of  revolt 
short  of  the  massing  of  the  people   for  concerted 


1381]  The  Headless  Rebellion.  283 

action — these  signs  and  warnings  of  revolution  had 
preceded  the  death  of  Edward.  But  it  was  the 
poll-tax  which  finally  exasperated  the  common 
people,  and  stung  them  into  open  rebellion.  No 
doubt,  as  Hollinshed  tells  us,  it  was  paid  "with 
great  grudging  and  many  a  bitter  curse." 

Early  in  1381  the  massing  began;  but  even  now 
it  would  be  idle  to  speak  of  concerted  action.  The 
distinguishing  marks  of  this  great  uprising  of  the  serfs 
were  its  spontaneity  throughout  the  south-eastern 
counties,  its  lack  of  organisation,  and,  so  far  as  one 
can  see,  the  complete  absence  of  recognised  leaders 
to  whom  men  could  look  for  guidance  and  direction. 
The  seething  irresolute  mob,  so  recently  inarticulate, 
if  not  absolutely  unvocal,  had  raised  its  huge  limbs 
without  a  brain  to  control  them,  and  had  found  a 
voice  which  proclaimed  that  forced  labour  and  servi- 
tude of  any  kind  should  come  to  an  end  in  England. 
What  might  not  a  capable  leader  have  done  in  that 
critical  year,  with  such  a  host  behind  him,  ready  to 
carry  out  his  behests?  But  indeed  the  thing  was 
impossible.  There  was  no  discipline — there  had 
been  no  chance  of  organisation.  Possibly  a  strenu- 
ous man — some  English  Spartacus  with  a  genius  for 
command — might  have  pitched  his  camp  on  a 
Kentish  plain,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Maidstone 
or  Canterbury,  or  even  on  Blackheath,  and  there  in 
the  course  of  a  few  weeks  he  might  have  made  an 
army  out  of  a  mob.  But  the  mere  suggestion  of 
the  idea  is  enough  to  show  its  futility  :  the  lapse  of 
time  would  have  enabled  the  authorities  in  London 
to  make  far  more  effectual  preparations. 


284  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

The  serf,  in  fact,  was  better  off  without  a  leader, 
without  genius,  without  arms  or  provision  of  any 
kind.  His  cause  was  enough  for  his  need  ;  the  mute 
and  stolid  protest  of  these  swarming  thousands  of 
self-emancipated  slaves  was  all  that  was  necessary — 
and  it  was  necessary — to  break  their  chains.  The 
slaughter  of  the  lawyers  and  manor  stewards,  the 
burning  of  the  court-rolls  and  service-lists,  the  be- 
heading of  the  Archbishop  and  Treasurer,  the 
destruction  of  buildings  in  London — these  incidents 
of  the  brief  servile  war  were  not  sufficient  in  them- 
selves to  stamp  it  with  the  bloody  mark  of  many  a 
better  organised  revolution.  The  true  character  of 
the  movement  is  seen  in  the  perfect,  almost  childish, 
loyalty  of  the  serfs  to  their  King,  in  the  admirable 
behaviour  of  the  crowds  which  quietly  dispersed 
when  he  had  personally  promised  them  redress,  and 
in  the  equally  admirable  behaviour  of  the  young 
monarch  so  long  as  he  was  under  the  influence  of  his 
mother.  The  plain  significance  of  these  facts  was 
that  the  demands  of  the  serfs  were  natural  and 
right ;  and  Richard  and  his  best  advisers  saw  them 
to  be  right. 

If  only  all  could  have  ended  there — if  Walworth 
had  never  cut  down  the  defenceless  spokesman  of 
the  rebels  during  his  colloquy  with  the  King, — if 
the  hangings  and  quarterings  which  followed  had 
been  confined  to  men  who  were  proved  guilty  of 
murder,  and  if  Parliament  had  held  itself  pledged  to 
grant  the  redress  which  Richard  had  promised, 
things  might  have  gone  better  with  England  for  the 
next  hundred  years,     As  Fuller  says  in  his  familiar 


1381]  The  Headless  Rebellion.  285 

way,  "  Jack  Straw  would  have  been  John  of  Gold 
had  this  treason  taken  effect."  John  Ball,  Jack 
Straw,  Wat  Tyler,  William  Grindecobbe,  would  have 
been  heroes  every  one,  and  the  consolidation  of 
English  society  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
hastened  by  many  years.  The  treason  of  the  serfs 
was  practically  summed  up  in  thei'r  demand  for  the 
abolition  of  serfdom.  The  boon  was  guaranteed 
at  Mile  End,  Smithfield,  and  the  Tower,  only  to 
be  cancelled  (so  far  as  that  was  possible)  when 
authority  got  the  upper  hand  again. 

Historians  have  almost  ceased  to  talk  about  "the 
rebellion  of  Wat  Tyler."  The  term  is  quite  inade- 
quate as  a  descriptive  title,  and  it  was  only  the 
accidental  meeting  of  this  man  with  the  King  and 
his  retinue  in  Smithfield  which  gave  his  name  such 
undue  prominence.  There  were,  in  fact,  two  or 
more  Tylers  amongst  the  leaders  of  the  peasants, 
and  the  Tyler  of  Dartford  who  avenged  his  daughter 
on  the  collector  of  poll-tax  was  not  the  same  man  as 
Wat  Tyler,  or  Walter  Helyer  (either  name  would  be 
an  easy  corruption  from  the  other)  whom  Walworth 
slew.  The  last  mentioned  seems  to  have  been  an 
Essex  man,  who  came  to  Blackheath  by  way  of  Kent, 
who  acknowledged  Ball  for  his  leader,  and  whose 
best  known  companions  were  John  Straw,  John 
Kyrkeby,  Alan  Threder,  Thomas  Scot,  and  Ralph 
Rugge. 

It  would  be  nearer  to  the  truth  if  we  were  to  speak 
of  "  the  rebellion  of  John  Ball."  Harpsfield  saw  fit 
to  call  Wyclif  the  whetstone  of  revolt  (cos  hujus  sedi- 
tionis).     That  is  a  title  to  which  Wyclif  can  lay  but 


286  John  Wyclif.  H381 

little  claim,  whilst  it  is  very  appropriate  to  Ball. 
This  Yorkshire  priest,  who  came  to  live  at  Colches- 
ter soon  after  the  year  1360,  had  been  excommuni- 
cated by  Archbishop  Islip,  and  was  apparently  four 
times  condemned  and  imprisoned  by  Islip  and  his 
successors.  Langham  wrote  to  the  Dean  of  Bocking 
to  denounce  "one  John  Ball,  pretending  that  he  is  a 
priest,"  who  persisted  in  "  preaching  manifold  errors 
and  scandals."  He  called  upon  the  Dean  to  admon- 
ish the  said  Ball,  with  "  other  and  singular  rectors, 
vicars,  and  parochial  chaplains  who  adhered  to  him." 
Ten  years  after  he  was  once  more  proceeded  against, 
this  time  by  Sudbury,  and  imprisoned  in  Maid- 
stone jail.  He  was  there  again  in  the  spring  of 
1 38 1,  when  the  men  of  Essex  began  the  universal 
strike. 

On  the  occasion  of  his  last  committal  he  is  said  to 
have  told  the  Archbishop,  on  receiving  sentence  of 
imprisonment,  that  he  would  be  set  free  again  by 
twenty  thousand  of  his  friends ;  and  it  would  seem 
to  have  been  anything  but  a  coincidence  that  the 
men  of  Kent,  when  they  presently  rose  at  the  insti- 
gation of  their  brethren  in  Essex,  marched  straight 
to  Maidstone,  broke  into  the  Archbishop's  prison, 
and  carried  John  Ball  in  triumph  to  Canterbury. 
Sudbury  in  the  meantime  had  gone  to  London,  where 
Ball  may  have  seen  him  beheaded  a  few  weeks  later. 
There  is  no  necessity  to  infer  that  Sudbury's  death 
was  in  anyway  due  to  the  personal  vengeance  of  the 
man  whom  he  had  subjected  to  ecclesiastical  disci- 
pline ;  but  all  the  circumstances  constrain  one  to  be- 
lieve that  the  Colchester  priest  had   been   planning 


1381]  The  Headless  Rebellion.  287 

the  revolt  against  serfdom  for  some  time  past,  that 
he  had  determined  to  take  advantage  of  the  exasper- 
ation produced  by  the  poll-tax,  that  he  had  been 
arrested  and  condemned  in  the  midst  of  his  prepara- 
tions, and  that  he  believed  the  strike  would  be  begun 
by  his  friends  in  Essex  at  the  time  agreed  upon, 
notwithstanding  his  incarceration.  This  would 
account  for  the  course  of  events  during  the  earlier 
days  of  the  rising,  and  for  the  special  prominence  of 
Ball  at  Blackheath,  whither  he  had  marched  with 
the  men  of  Kent,  instead  of  trying  to  cross  the 
Thames  in  order  to  be  with  his  more  intimate  asso- 
ciates— who  would  probably  have  started  for  London 
before  he  arrived  at  Rochester. 

The  English  History  of  Walsingham  fully  vouches 
for  the  fact  that  the  first  massing,  and  the  signal 
to  move  upon  London,  were  due  to  personal  initia- 
tion within  the  county  of  Essex.  The  chronicler 
says  that  "  the  authors  and  prime  movers  of  this 
calamity  "  were  Essex  men  ;  and  they  may  doubtless 
be  identified  with  John  Ball  and  his  friends.  It  is 
recorded  that  they  sent  round  to  every  little  home- 
stead, and  commanded  all  the  men,  veterans  and  raw 
lads  included,  to  leave  their  occupations  and  their 
women-folk,  to  arm  themselves  in  any  way  they 
could,  and  to  assemble  without  fail  at  the  appointed 
places,  on  pain  of  death.  Accordingly  some  five 
thousand  were  gathered  together,  about  the  time  of 
the  spring  ploughing  and  sowing,  "of  the  lowest 
common  people  and  the  rustics,"  armed  with  sticks, 
rusty  swords,  and  scythes ;  a  few  of  them  (probably 
old  soldiers   who  had    fought    in  France)  carrying 


288  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

worn-out  bows — many  a  bowman  having  but  a  single 
arrow,  and  many  an  arrow  winged  with  a  single 
feather ;  and  "  thus  they  went  forth  to  conquer  a 
kingdom."  There  is  a  poetical  touch  in  this  descrip- 
tion which  warrants  us  in  treating  it  with  some  de- 
gree of  qualification.  Poor  as  the  organisation  must 
have  been,  the  forces  of  "  the  Commons,"  as  they 
delighted  to  call  themselves,  were  probably  better 
than  the  mere  riff-raff  of  the  country-side. 

The  men  of  Kent,  "  hearing  of  this  thing  which 
they  had  so  often  prayed  for,"  immediately  roused 
the  whole  county,  blocked  the  roads,  and,  stopping 
every  traveller,  made  him  swear — "  That  he  would 
be  loyal  to  King  Richard  and  to  the  Commons ; 
that  he  would  have  no  King  of  the  name  of  John  ; 
that  he  would  be  ready  when  sent  for  to  come  and 
join  them  ;  that  he  would  persuade  all  his  neigh- 
bours and  acquaintance  to  hold  with  them  ;  and  that 
he  would  not  agree  or  consent  to  the  raising  of  any 
taxes  in  the  kingdom  thenceforth  except  only  the 
•fifteenths  which  their  fathers  and  ancestors  had 
known  and  agreed  to."  Then  they  liberated  John 
Ball  at  Maidstone,  as  already  stated,  and  proceeded 
by  way  of  Canterbury  and  Rochester  along  the 
northern  road  to  London. 

The  news  spread  to  Sussex,  Hertfordshire,  Cam- 
bridgeshire, Suffolk,  and  Norfolk,  and  all  men's  minds 
were  divided  between  hope  and  dread.  "  Men  com- 
monly said  to  each  other  that  there  would  be  a 
division  of  the  kingdom  owing  to  these  occurrences, 
and  that  England  would  be  devastated  and  de- 
stroyed."    And  when  the  number  of  the  rebels  daily 


1381]  The  Headless  Rebellion.  289 

increased,  until  they  were  past  counting,  and  they 
no  longer  feared  resistance,  they  began  to  show 
what  they  had  in  their  minds.  "  Every  single  man 
who  knew  anything  about  the  law  of  land-holding, 
whether  clerks  or  venerable  justices,  and  all  the 
jurators  of  the  land  whom  they  had  any  reason  to 
fear,  they  slew  without  compunction,  declaring  that 
the  land  could  never  enjoy  freedom  until  these  had 
been  put  to  death.  That  kind  of  talk  pleased  the 
rustics  immensely ;  and,  passing  from  small  things 
to  greater,  they  determined  to  set  fire  to  all  the  rolls 
and  ancient  records  in  the  court-houses ;  so  that, 
when  they  had  wiped  out  the  memory  of  the  olden 
time,  their  lords  would  not  in  future  be  able  to 
establish  a  claim  over  them."  They  also  took  special 
care  to  burn  the  tax-rolls,  on  which  their  assessment 
for  poll-tax  was  recorded. 

So,  for  some  time,  the  leaderless  mobs  hung  about 
in  their  several  counties,  whilst  the  lords  and  men 
of  substance  concealed  themselves  in  their  dwellings, 
or  fled  to  a  distance,  or  paid  ransom  in  one  form  or 
another.  Meanwhile  "  the  Kentishmen  and  the 
Essexmen  drew  together  and  formed  an  army,  of 
about  a  hundred  thousand  common  people  and  rus- 
tics." That  is  all  that  Walsingham  can  tell  us  of 
the  creation  of  the  first  army  which  marched  on 
London  by  way  of  Blackheath.  It  is  probable,  how- 
ever, that  Blackheath  was  simply  the  common  ren- 
dezvous for  the  south-eastern  counties,  whilst  the 
men  of  the  eastern  counties  met  at  Mile  End.  The 
Essex  men  would  naturally  make  direct  for  the 
eastern  gate  of  the  city,  though  some  of  them  may 


290  John  Wyclif.  tl38l 

have  been  drawn  to  Blackheath  in  order  to  meet  John 
Ball.  One  of  Ball's  lieutenants,  Jack  Straw,  seems  to 
have  crossed  the  Thames  at  an  earlier  date,  with  a  few 
companions,  for  the  purpose  of  rousing  the  southern 
shire  and  opening  the  gates  of  Maidstone  jail. 

On  Blackheath  there  was  a  more  or  less  orderly- 
muster.  Wat  Tyler,  who  had  served  in  France,  was 
at  the  head  of  this  contingent,  and  seems  to  have 
kept  it  well  in  hand  whilst  the  fiery  priest  from 
Essex  harangued  and  inflamed  it.  Commissioners 
from  the  King  came  to  hear  the  demands  of  the 
peasants,  and  they  were  sent  back  with  fair  treat- 
ment and  a  moderate  request  from  the  leaders  that 
they  might  have  speech  with  their  monarch.  In  the 
Council  to  which  this  message  was  reported  Sudbury 
made  the  fatal  mistake,  in  which  he  was  supported 
by  the  Treasurer — Sir  Robert  Hales,  prior  of  the 
Hospital  of  St.  John, — of  urging  that  the  King  should 
not  receive  the  representatives  of  the  rebels. 

The  story  of  the  next  few  days  need  not  be  re- 
peated here  in  detail ;  but  so  far  as  the  spirit  of  the 
movement  can  be  gathered  from  the  words  and  acts 
of  John  Ball — who  must  certainly  be  classed  as  a 
Lollard,  whether  he  was  a  professed  disciple  of 
Wyclif  or  not — it  is  worth  while  to  take  note  of  the 
general  course  of  events. 

The  famous  speech  of  Ball  on  Blackheath  has 
been  cited  by  the  chroniclers  and  others  as  a  dis- 
tinct encouragement  to  violence  and  bloodshed.  The 
simple  question  is  whether  we  are  to  accept  the 
testimony  of  his  enemies,  written  down  at  the  time 
when  passion  ran  high,  and  by  men  who  considered 


1381]  The  Headless  Rebellion.  291 

him  one  of  the  worst  and  most  dangerous  culprits. 
At  Blackheath,  the  chronicler  tells  us,  there  were 
two  hundred  thousand  of  the  people  gathered  to- 
gether, and  the  excommunicated  priest  improvised 
a  pulpit  and  preached  to  as  many  as  could  hear  him 
on  the  standing  text  of  communism  in  all  ages — 

"  When  Adam  dalf,  and  Eve  span, 
Who  was  then  a  gentleman  ?  " 

For  all,  said  he,  were  made  equal  by  nature  from  the 
beginning.  Servitude  was  brought  in  by  the  unjust 
oppression  of  wicked  men,  against  the  will  of  God. 
If  God  had  pleased  to  create  slaves,  he  could  have 
settled  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  world  who 
was  to  be  a  slave  and  who  a  master.  Now  let  them 
remember  that  at  last  an  opportunity  had  been  given 
them  by  God  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  daily  servi- 
tude. The  time  had  come  for  them  to  enjoy,  if  they 
would  make  up  their  minds,  the  liberty  for  which 
they  had  craved  so  long.  "  Be  stout  of  heart,"  he 
said,  "  and,  with  the  zeal  of  a  good  husbandman  who 
tills  his  farm,  rooting  up  and  cutting  down  the 
noxious  weeds  which  choke  the  crops,  set  to  work 
now  and  do  the  same  thing  yourselves.  First  of  all, 
you  must  kill  off  the  great  lords  of  England ;  then 
the  lawyers,*  the  justiciaries,  and  jurators  must  be 
put  an  end  to  ;  and  last  of  all,  cast  out  of  your  land 
all  whom  you  think  likely  to  hurt  the  Commons  here- 
after.    In  this  way  you  will  be  able  to  obtain  peace 


*  So  in  Shakspeare's  Henry  VI.,  Part   2,  Dick  the  Butcher  says 
1  to  Cade  :  "  The  first  thing  we  do,  let  's  kill  all  the  lawyers." 


292  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

for  yourselves  and  safety  for  the  future.  When  all 
the  great  men  are  carried  off,  there  will  be  equal  lib- 
erty for  all.  Everyone  shall  be  a  noble,  no  one  shall 
have  greater  dignity  than  another,  and  the  power  of 
all  shall  be  the  same." 

If  John  Ball  had  been  an  agitator  in  the  present 
century,  and  this  account  of  his  speech  had  been 
put  into  circulation  by  his  enemies,  he  would  have 
been  able  to  write  to  the  newspapers  and  challenge 
its  accuracy  or  its  veracity.  As  it  was,  he  had  no 
opportunity  of  checking  the  reports  which  were 
given  of  his  sermons  and  speeches.  If  such  oppor- 
tunity had  been  allowed  him  in  the  Archbishop's 
court,  he  had  learnt  too  surely  that  his  levelling 
theories  were  opposed  to  the  political  and  religious 
orthodoxies  of  his  day,  and  that  the  more  logically 
and  even  moderately  they  were  put,  the  more  in- 
sidious and  dangerous  they  would  appear.  In  that 
sense  the  "  mad  priest  "  was  hopelessly  out  of  court, 
born  before  his  time,  and  (according  to  the  ideas  of 
his  day)  rightfully  condemned.  But  it  is  only  fair 
to  him  to  say  that  there  is  no  trustworthy  evidence 
that  he  incited  any  man  to  slaughter,  or  that  he  in- 
tended the  march  on  London  to  be  anything  more 
than  an  overwhelming  demonstration  of  the  popular 
grievances,  which  (he  fondly  thought)  was  to  secure 
the  triumph  of  right  without  striking  a  blow.  That 
the  mobs  in  many  instances  broke  from  the  control 
of  their  leaders  is  perfectly  true ;  and  it  is  equally 
true  that  the  leaders  did  what  they  could  to  restrain 
the  violent.  Thus  when  Lancaster's  palace  at  the 
Savoy,  which  had  narrowly  escaped  four  years  before, 


1381]  The  Headless  Rebellion.  293 

was  set  on  fire,  the  peasants  seized  a  pillager  who  was 
making  off  with  his  booty  and  flung  him  into  the 
blazing  pile.  "  We  have  no  mind  to  be  thieves," 
they  are  reported  to  have  said.  Hate  was  far  stronger 
in  their  breasts  than  greed.  It  is  recorded  that 
they  pounded  the  Duke's  jewels  in  mortars,  trampled 
on  his  cloth  of  gold  and  embroidered  silks,  smashed 
the  gold  and  silver  plate,  the  spoils  of  many  a  hard 
fight,  and  hurled  them  into  the  Thames. 

The  Duke  himself  at  this  time  was  at  the  head  of 
his  troops  in  Scotland,  and  it  is  therefore  inexact  to 
say  that  he  had  fled  before  the  storm.  The  facts 
connected  with  the  death  of  Archbishop  Sudbury 
and  the  Treasurer  Hales  are  by  no  means  clear ; 
but  the  beheading  on  Tower  Hill  may  be  supposed 
to  have  been  intended  as  an  assertion  by  the 
"  sovereign  people"  of  its  right  to  execute  summary 
justice. 

In  the  wallet  of  one  of  the  Essex  men,  who 
suffered  for  his  part  in  the  great  disturbance,  a  letter 
was  found  which  was  manifestly  the  composition  of 
John  Ball. 

"  John  Schep,  som  tyme  Seynt  Marie  prest  of 
Yorke,  and  nowe  of  Colchestre,  greteth  welle  Johan 
Nameles,  and  Johan  the  Mullere,  and  Johan  Cartere, 
and  biddeth  hem  that  thei  ware  of  gyle  in  borugh. 
And  stondeth  togiddir  in  Goddis  name,  and  biddeth 
Peres  Ploughman  go  to  his  werke,  and  chastise 
Hobbe  the  robber,  and  taketh  with  you  Johan  Trew- 
man,  and  alle  his  felaws,  and  no  mo,  and  loke  scharpe 
you  to  on  heved  and  no  mo  [obey  one  head  and  no 
more]. 


294  John  Wyclif.  ti38i 

"  Johan  the  Muller  hath  ygrownde  smal,  smal,  smal ; 
The  Kyngis  sone  of  hevene  shall  pay  for  alle. 
Be  ware  or  ye  be  wo, 
Knoweth  your  frende  fro  youre  foo, 
Haveth  ynowe,  and  seythe  '  Hoo '  : 
And  do  welle  and  bettre,  and  fleth  synne, 
And  seketh  pees,  and  holde  therynne. 
And  so  biddeth  Johan  Trewman,  and  alle  his  felavves." 

It  may  be  said  that  in  bidding  Piers  Ploughman 
to  chastise  Hobbe  the  robber,  Ball  was  inciting  to 
violence  and  even  to  bloodshed.  But  clearly  the 
prevailing  note  of  the  significant  document  above 
quoted  is  one  of  peace  and  moderation — of  course 
pre-supposing  the  intention  to  march  on  London  and 
demand  redress.  The  comparative  elevation  and 
morality  of  this  and  other  appeals  from  the  dema- 
gogue priest,  which  must  have  circulated  in  great 
numbers  for  some  time  before  the  outbreak,  have 
been  recognised  in  every  generation.  Ball  did  not 
always  disguise  his  name.     Here  is  one  of  his  missives. 

"John  Ball  greeteth  you  all, 
And  doth  for  to  understand  he  hath  rung  your  bell. 
Now  right  and  might, 
Will  and  skill, 
God  speed  every  dele." 


And  another : 


"  Help  truth,  and  truth  shall  help  you. 
Now  reigneth  pride  in  price, 
And  covetise  is  counted  wise, 
And  lechery  withouten  shame, 
And  gluttony  withouten  blame. 
Envy  reigneth  with  treason, 
And  sloth  is  take  in  great  season. 
God  do  bote,  for  now  is  tyme." 


1381]  The  Headless  Rebellion.  295 

Jack  Miller,  Jack  Carter,  Piers  Ploughman,  John 
Trewman,  appear  again  and  again  in  these  moving 
appeals ;  and  perhaps  some  of  them,  if  not  all,  stood 
for  the  names  of  men  who  were  familiar  in  the  coun- 
try-side. The  parable  of  the  mill  was  manifestly  a 
favourite  one  amongst  the  rebels. 

11  Jack  Miller  asketh  help  to  turn  his  mill  aright. 
He  hath  grounden  small,  small ; 
The  king's  son  of  heaven  he  shall  pay  for  all. 
Look  thy  mill  go  aright  with  the  four  sails,  and  the  post 
stand  with  steadfastness. 
With  right  and  with  might, 
With  skill  and  with  will  ; 
Let  might  help  right, 
And  skill  go  before  will, 
And  right  before  might, 
So  goeth  our  mill  aright." 

Unfortunately  for  the  peasants,  or  at  any  rate  for 
the  victims  on  whom  the  worst  of  the  vengeance 
was  to  fall,  they  could  not  or  did  not  follow  the  ad- 
vice of  John  Schep  on  all  points.  They  did  not 
stand  together ;  guile  overtook  them  in  the  borough, 
and  they  could  not  tell  their  friends  from  their  foes. 
The  vast  majority  of  them  unquestionably"  sought 
peace  and  held  therein,"  but  the  few  who  became 
violent — and  the  turbulent  citizens  were  perhaps 
more  responsible  for  the  violence  than  the  rustics 
themselves — gave  some  sort  of  warrant  for  the  re- 
pudiation of  the  terms  which  had  been  granted  by 
Richard,  and  on  the  faith  of  which  so  many  thou- 
sands of  the  serfs  had  gone  quietly  home. 

There  are  but  slight  traces  of  generosity  in  the 
treatment  of  the  peasants  when  all  danger  was  at 


296  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

an  end,  and  authority  had  renewed  its  sway.  The 
strong  course  would  have  been  to  confirm  the  am- 
nesty and  the  emancipation,  to  compensate  those 
who  had  suffered  from  mob  violence,  to  keep  the 
word  of  the  King,  and  to  maintain  the  supremacy 
and  impartiality  of  the  law.  Richard's  Council 
acted  fairly  enough  in  suggesting  to  Parliament  that 
the  serfs  should  have  their  liberty.  The  land-owners 
would  not  listen  to  it,  wrongly  supposing  that  things 
could  be  put  back  on  their  old  footing,  and  urging 
that  the  King  had  no  right  to  take  away  their  chat- 
tels without  their  consent — which,  said  they,  "  we 
have  never  given,  and  never  will  give,  if  we  were  all 
to  die  on  the  same  day."  That  was  at  the  beginning 
of  the  autumn  session  of  1381  ;  and  though  many 
members  came  up  prepared  to  think  more  of  redress 
than  of  vengeance,  the  majority  were  bent  on  a 
policy  of  stern  repression.  It  was  determined  that 
the  promises  extorted  from  the  King  by  force  were 
not  binding,  and  ought  not  to  be  kept.  Amongst 
these  promises  were  a  large  number  of  individual 
manumissions,  and  some  half-dozen  charters  of 
emancipation  and  pardon  to  the  serfs  of  different 
counties,  drawn  up  in  the  following  terms  : 

u  Richard  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  England 
and  France,  and  Lord  of  Ireland,  to  all  his  stewards 
and  trusty  servants  to  whom  this  present  letter  may 
come,  greeting.  Know  ye  that  by  our  special  grace 
we  have  manumitted  all  our  lieges  and  bondmen  of 

the  county  of ,  and  we  have  freed  them  from  all 

bondage,  themselves  and  each  of  them,  and  do  sat- 
isfy  them   by   these   presents ;    and    moreover  we 


1381]  The  Headless  Rebellion.  297 

pardon  the  same  our  lieges  and  bondmen  all  their 
felonies,  betrayals,  transgressions  and  extortions  of 
whatsoever  kind,  committed  or  perpetrated  by  them- 
selves or  others,  as  well  as  any  outlawry,  if  any  such 
shall  have  been  pronounced  against  them,  or  any  of 
them,  in  consequence  of  these  events;  and  further- 
more we  grant  them,  and  each  of  them,  absolute 
peace.  In  testimony  whereof  we  have  caused  these 
our  letters  patent  to  be  drawn  up.  As  witness  our 
hand,  at  London,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  June,  in 
the  fourth  year  of  our  reign." 

It  was  on  the  faith  of  these  charters  that  the  men 
of  Essex,  Hertford,  and  other  counties  left  London 
without  striking  a  blow.  Some  at  least  of  the 
King's  promises  were  made  of  his  own  accord,  when 
he  bravely  faced  the  seething  crowds,  before  there 
had  been  any  violence  in  the  streets.  At  no  time 
was  he  himself  in  duress  or  danger;  and  to  contend 
that  he  ought  not  to  keep  terms  with  his  subjects, 
when  it  would  have  been  a  point  of  honour  to  do  so 
with  a  foreign  enemy,  was  no  more  reasonable  than 
it  was  to  urge  that  a  Plantagenet  King  in  the  later 
feudal  age  was  not  entitled  to  insist  on  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  serfs. 

The  King's  attendants  and  the  City  authorities* 
who  had  lost  their  nerve  in  presence  of  the  immense 
crowds  of  rustics,  seem  to  have  taken  heart  again  as 
soon  as  they  had  seen  the  dead  body  of  Tyler,  and 
the  last  contingent  of  the  rebels  had  disappeared 
from  the  capital.  The  worst  was  over;  henceforth 
the  marshal  could  answer  at  any  rate  for  the  streets 
of  London  ;  and,  if  there  were  to  be  further  troubles 


298  John  Wyclif.  C1381 

in  the  counties,  they  could  be  dealt  with  in  detail 
by  the  royal  forces.  It  must  have  been  patent  to 
everybody  that  the  strength  of  the  rebellion  was 
broken ;  and  no  man  would  see  this  more  plainly 
than  John  Ball,  who  knew  his  countrymen  so  thor- 
oughly. Even  if  he  had  faith  to  believe  that  the 
serfs  had  not  struck  their  blow  for  freedom  utterly 
in  vain,  he  must  have  felt  that  he  and  his  immediate 
friends  had  nothing  to  expect  from  the  clemency  of 
their  enemies.  He  fled  without  delay  to  his  native 
town  of  Coventry,  and  after  a  few  days,  probably 
recognised  and  betrayed  by  some  one  who  knew 
him,  the  "  mad  priest  "  was  captured  in  an  old  ruin — 
so  Froissart  tells  us — and  taken  before  the  King  at 
St.  Albans.  The  unfortunate  man  had  a  short  shrift ; 
he  was  condemned  to  be  hanged,  drawn,  and  quar- 
tered, and  the  sentence  was  carried  out  in  Richard's 
presence  on  the  15th  of  July. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
courtenay's  triumph. 

PON  Wyclif  and  his  friends  the 
effects  of  the  Peasants'  Re- 
volt could  not  fail  to  be 
very  disastrous.  The  King's 
Council  was  not  satisfied  with 
the  vengeance  which  it  had 
executed  throughout  the  dis- 
turbed districts,  with  violat- 
ing the  young  King's  pledges, 
annulling  the  manumissions  and  indemnities  granted 
to  the  serfs,  and  attempting  to  rivet  their  chains 
more  securely  than  ever.  It  determined  to  curb 
the  spirit  of  Wyclif  and  his  Poor  Priests,  believ- 
ing or  feigning  to  believe  that  they  were  in  part 
responsible  for  the  outbreak.  In  most  of  these 
measures  it  required  the  assistance  of  Parliament,  and 
it  might  have  been  thought  that  reaction  in  the 
country,  added  to  the  influence  of  the  King's  uncles 
and  principal  officers,  would  have  ensured  the  elec- 

299 


300  John  Wyclif.  M381- 

tion  of  a  series  of  Parliaments  more  than  ready  to 
acquiesce  in  legislation  of  a  reactionary  character. 
But  it  was  not  so.  The  Lords  were  amenable,  and 
in  some  particulars  they  took  the  lead  in  a  policy  of 
vengeance  or  panic ;  but  when  in  1382  the  bishops 
and  barons  voted  that  Wyclif's  Priests  should  be 
silenced  and  suppressed,  the  Commons  disagreed 
with  the  ordinance,  which  never  became  a  statute. 
Three  years  later  another  House  of  Commons  rose 
to  the  heroic  level  of  voting  the  appropriation  of  the 
Church  endowments  to  secular  uses.  The  Lords 
promptly  refused  their  co-operation  ;  but  the  action 
of  the  more  representative  House  showed  that  some 
at  least  of  the  new  doctrines  were  firmly  rooted  in 
English  soil. 

Courtenay  became  Primate  of  England  after  the 
death  of  Sudbury,  and  a  few  days  later  he  was  cre- 
ated Chancellor.  He  preached  to  the  two  Houses 
in  English  ;  and  if  by  any  chance  he  thought  it  timely 
to  enlarge  upon  the  virtues  of  fidelity  and  good 
faith,  it  may  easily  be  imagined  that  the  Lords  and 
Commons  would  listen  to  him  at  that  moment  with 
very  little  patience,  for  the  mood  of  forgiveness  was 
not  upon  them.  Parliament  met,  and  Courtenay 
preached  his  sermon,  on  the  9th  of  November,  1381  ; 
nine  days  later  he  resigned  the  great  seal.  It  is  at 
any  rate  not  improbable  that  he  did  this  through 
lack  of  stomach  for  the  work  of  undoing  all  the 
King's  pledges — voluntary  and  spontaneous,  as  well 
as  forced — and  of  sanctioning  the  continued  severities 
ofTressilian  and  the  other  justiciaries.  According 
to   one  account,  an  actual  petition   of   Parliament 


13821  Courtenay  s  Triumph.  301 

for  anew  Chancellor  compelled  Courtenay's  retire- 
ment. It  was  not  until  the  following  January,  on 
the  marriage  of  the  King  to  Anne  of  Bohemia, 
that  the  beheadings  and  burnings  and  disembowel- 
lings  ceased,  and  the  seven  thousand  victims  were 
held  to  have  paid  the  debt  of  revojt. 

But  it  was  necessary  that  Wyclif  also  should  suffer 
for  the  suspicions  which  had  fallen  upon  him.  He 
was  accused  of  having  contributed  to  bring  about 
the  disorders,  and  there  would  naturally  be  a  preju- 
dice against  him  in  the  minds  of  some  who  had 
hitherto  favoured  his  cause.  In  the  spring  of  1382 
Courtenay  was  directed  by  Parliament  to  inquire 
into  the  doctrines  of  the  Rector  of  Lutterworth,  on 
the  express  ground  that  he  and  his  preachers  had 
disturbed  the  peace  of  the  realm.  It  is  doubtful 
how  far  this  mandate  proceeded  from  a  majority  in 
both  Houses ;  and,  considering  that  the  Commons 
soon  afterwards  refused  to  agree  to  the  suppression  of 
the  Poor  Priests  when  this  had  been  proposed  by  the 
bishops  and  barons,  it  seems  unlikely  that  the  popular 
representatives  should  have  ordered  the  proceedings 
against  Wyclif  in  a  message  which  so  entirely  pre- 
judged his  case.  We  can  easily  imagine  what  argu- 
ments the  primate  would  employ  to  convince  the 
Lords  of  the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  a  prosecution. 
When  John  Ball  had  been  condemned  to  death 
Courtenay  had  obtained  for  him  a  respite  of  two 
days,  during  which  he  had  wrestled  with  the  "  mad 
priest  "  for  his  soul ;  and  he  may  have  been  able  to 
assure  his  colleagues  in  perfect  good  faith  that  he 
had  traced  out  all  the  ramifications  of  the  doctrine 


302  John  Wyclif.  ri38i 

which  began  in  the  schools  and  the  Latin  treatise, 
and  ended  in  revolt  against  the  government  and  the 
assassination  of  the  chief  ministers  of  the  Crown. 

However  this  may  have  been,  Courtenay  lost  no 
time  in  proceeding  once  more  against  the  redoubtable 
Oxford  professor,  and  with  a  better  assurance  of  suc- 
cess than  on  either  of  the  former  occasions  when  he 
had  set  the  machinery  of  the  Church  in  motion. 
He  had  no  longer  much  to  fear,  if  anything,  from 
John  of  Gaunt,  who  had  cooled  very  considerably 
towards  Wyclif  and  his  friends,  even  before  the 
terrible  scare  which  the  peasants  had  given  him  a 
year  ago.  Poor  Sudbury,  too,  the  mild  and  irresolute, 
had  gone  to  his  account,  and  there  was  no  power  in 
the  land  which  was  able,  or  disposed,  to  interfere 
with  the  exercise  of  his  authority. 

As  soon  as  the  session  was  over  he  summoned  a 
Synod  of  the  English  Church  to  meet  him,  on  the 
2 1st  of  May,  in  the  priory  of  the  Dominicans  in 
Holborn  ("  apud  Prcedicatores  "J.  There  were 
present  in  this  assembly  ten  bishops,  including 
Courtenay  himself,  Robert  of  London,  William  of 
Winchester,  John  of  Lincoln,  Thomas  of  Exeter, 
John  of  Durham,  John  of  Hereford,  Ralph  of  Salis- 
bury, Thomas  of  Rochester,  and  William  Bot.elle- 
sham  of  Nantes — the  latter  being  an  old  friar.  The 
doctors  of  theology  in  addition  to  these  were  four 
Carmelites — Glamvile  and  Dysse  of  Cambridge, 
Lovey  and  Kynyngham  of  Oxford  ;  three  Domini- 
cans— Sywarde  and  Langeley  of  Oxford,  and  Parys 
of  Cambridge  ;  four  Augustinians — Ascheburn  and 
Bankin  of  Oxford,  Hormenton  of  Cambridge,  and 


[13821  Courtenays  Triumph,  303 

Waldeby  of  Toulouse  ;  four  Franciscans — Karlelle  and 
Bernevvell  of  Oxford,  Folvyle  and  Frysby  of  Cam- 
bridge ;  and  the  Benedictine  monk  John  Wells  of 
Ramsey.  There  were  also  eleven  doctors  of  law,  two 
bachelors  of  law,  and  seven  bachelors  of  theology, 
including  Bloxham,  custos  of  Merton,  Humbleton 
and  two  other  Dominicans,  two  Carmelites,  and  a 
Franciscan. 

This  was  not  the  full  number  summoned  by 
Courtenay.  Rygge,  the  Chancellor  of  Oxford,  was 
not  present,  nor  did  Wyclif  himself  put  in  an  ap- 
pearance, being  very  possibly  out  of  health.  Dr. 
James  asserts  in  his  Apology  that  Wyclif  "  volun- 
tarily absented  himself,  because  he  knew  that  the 
bishops  had  plotted  his  death  by  the  way,  devising 
the  means  and  encouraging  men  thereunto."  This 
is  not  at  all  likely,  though  the  suspicion  may  have 
been  entertained.  It  is  more  than  probable  that 
the  Reformer's  friends  dissuaded  him  from  going  to 
London,  through  fear  that  his  death  might  follow 
on  his  condemnation.  It  would  be  impossible,  in 
the  light  of  subsequent  events,  to  admit  that  such 
fears  were  groundless.  Or  it  may  have  been  that 
Wyclif  had  good  cause  to  know  that  he  would  at 
least  be  arrested  if  he  left  Oxford  in  1382.  Parlia- 
ment as  well  as  the  bishops  was  now  against  him,  and 
for  the  moment  Oxford  was  perhaps  the  only  place 
in  the  country  where  he  could  be  free  from  the  dan- 
ger of  arrest.  In  his  absence  the  Synod  discussed 
the  conclusions  which  had  been  attributed  to  him, 
and  condemned  ten  of  them  as  distinct  heresies  and 
fourteen  more  as  erroneous. 


304  John  Wyclif.  11381 

Whilst  the  discussion  was  proceeding,  the  hall  in 
which  the  Council  sat  was  shaken  by  an  earthquake. 
It  may  well  be  supposed  that  Wyclif's  friends — 
if  there  were  any  present,  which  seems  doubtful — 
would  claim  this  portent  as  a  sign  from  Heaven  in 
his  favour ;  and  even  the  most  orthodox  of  the  clergy 
must  have  been  startled  and  perturbed.  One  can- 
not but  admire  the  splendid  courage  of  Courtenay, 
who  instantly  turned  the  shock  to  good  account ; 
for,  he  said,  as  the  earth  expelled  its  ill  humours 
with  so  much  vehemence  and  convulsion,  they  ought 
to  take  it  as  a  happy  omen  for  the  expulsion  of  ill 
humours  from  the  Church  of  Christ. 

The  Synod  was  then  adjourned  until  the  12th  of 
June,  at  the  same  time  and  place ;  and  in  the  mean- 
time the  Primate  took  measures  to  make  an  impres- 
sion on  the  obstinate  spirits  at  Oxford,  who  under 
Chancellor  Rygge  still  remained  loyal  to  their  friend. 
On  the  28th  of  May  Courtenay  sent  his  missive  to 
Peter  Stokys,  a  friar  of  the  Carmelite  Order,  and  a 
"professor  of  the  sacred  page."  The  prelates  of  the 
Church,  he  said,  owed  it  to  the  lambs  to  warn  them 
against  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing.  There  were  cer- 
tain "sons  of  eternal  damnation"  who,  "under  a 
cloak  of  great  sanctity,"  claimed  authority  to  preach 
in  spite  of  prohibition  a  number  of  heretical,  erro- 
neous, and  false  conclusions,  already  condemned  by 
the  Church,  and  contrary  to  decisions  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical authorities,  "  which  threaten  to  overturn  the 
Church  and  the  peace  of  the  nation."  These  men 
are  not  afraid  to  assert  and  publicly  teach  the  errors 
in  question,  "  not  only  in  the  churches  but  also  in 


11382]  Courtenays  Triumph.  305 

the  open  squares  and  other  unconsecrated  places 
within  our  province  of  Canterbury."  Therefore  the 
Archbishop  had  called  together  a  number  of  doctors 
of  theology  and  professors  of  the  canon  and  civil 
law,  with  other  clerics  of  repute,  that  they  might 
give  an  opinion  thereon.  By  them  it  was  found  and 
declared  that  of  the  said  conclusions  some  were 
heretical,  whilst  others  were  erroneous  and  contrary 
to  decisions  of  the  Church. 

The  Archbishop  therefore  commands  Friar  Peter 
to  warn  and  inhibit  any  who  preach  or  defend  such 
doctrine,  of  whatever  state  or  condition  they  may  be, 
in  the  University  of  Oxford,  in  the  schools  or  out- 
side, in  public  or  in  private,  and  any  who  shall  listen 
to  those  who  preach  it,  or  shall  favour  or  consort  with 
them  in  public  or  in  private.  They  are  to  be  fled 
from  and  avoided  like  a  snake  emitting  deadly  poison, 
under  penalty  of  the  greater  excommunication. 

To  this  missive  the  Primate  added  a  list  of  the 
heresies  and  errors  which  had  been  condemned  by 
the  Synod  of  Blackfriars — namely,  ten  heresies  and 
fourteen  erroneous  conclusions.  The  heresies  are  as 
follows : 

"  1.  That  the  material  substances  of  bread  and 
wine  continue  after  consecration  in  the  sacrament 
of  the  altar. 

"  2.  The  bread  and  wine  do  not  remain  in  the 
same  sacrament  sine  subjecto  (as  accidents  without 
substance). 

"  3.  Christ  is  not  in  the  sacrament  of  the  altar 
identically,  truly,  and  really  in  his  proper  corporeal 
personality. 


306  John  Wyclif.  [1381 

u  4.  If  a  bishop  or  a  priest  is  in  mortal  sin,  he  does 
not  ordain,  consecrate,  or  baptize. 

"  5.  If  a  man  is  in  a  fit  condition  of  soul,  external 
confession  is  superfluous  and  even  invalid  for  him. 

"  6.  There  is  no  authority  in  the  Gospel  for  de- 
claring that  Christ  ordained  the  mass. 

"  7.  God  is  constrained  to  give  place  to  the  devil. 

"  8.  If  the  Pope  is  a  reprobate  and  wicked  man, 
and  consequently  a  member  of  the  devil,  he  has  no 
power  over  Christ's  faithful  people  assigned  to  him 
by  anyone,  unless  it  be  by  Caesar  (that  is,  temporal). 

"9.  After  Urban  VI.  no  one  else  ought  to  be 
elected  as  Pope,  but  we  ought  to  live  in  the  manner 
of  the  Greeks,  under  our  own  laws. 

"  10.  It  is  contrary  to  Holy  Scripture  for  ecclesias- 
tics to  hold  temporal  possessions." 

At  the  same  time  that  he  wrote  to  Peter  Stokys, 
the  Archbishop  sent  a  letter  to  Chancellor  Rygge, 
expressing  his  surprise  at  the  favour  which  had 
been  shown  by  him  to  Master  Nicholas  Hereford 
— who  had  just  been  appointed  to  preach  before 
the  University — exhorting  him  thenceforth  to  amend 
his  ways,  lest  he  should  himself  appear  to  be  one  of 
the  heretical  sect,  and  it  should  be  "  our  duty 
thereon  to  exercise  our  authority  against  you."  And 
the  Chancellor  is  enjoined  to  assist  Stokys  in  giving 
publicity  to  the  Archbishop's  denunciation. 

Courtenay  was  grimly  in  earnest :  but  he  had 
some  trouble  yet  before  he  could  make  his  will  pre- 
vail. After  receiving  his  letter,  Dr.  Rygge  appointed 
Repyngdon,  another  Wycliffite,  to  preach  before  the 
University.      It   is   evident   that    he   was   only  in- 


1382]  Courtenay  s  Triumph,  307 

terpreting  the  spirit  of  Oxford,  so  far  as  the  aca- 
demic element  was  concerned.  The  Lollards,  as 
they  now  began  to  be  generally  called,  were  in  fa- 
vour;  the  University  men  would  not  hear  them  ill 
spoken  of,  and  applauded  those  who  did  them  honour. 
Rygge  gave  Stokys  no  active  assistance,  and  the 
Carmelite  wrote  to  Courtenay  saying  that  he  dare 
not  carry  out  his  behests  for  fear  of  death.  The 
defiance  was  open  and  aggressive.  Not  only  did 
Repyngdon  call  the  men  who  had  been  condemned 
by  Courtenay  holy  priests,  and  contrast  their  mor- 
ality with  the  abuses  which  were  rife  amongst  the 
wealthier  clergy,  but  when  Stokys  came  into  the 
schools  and  prepared  to  inhibit  him  in  the  name  of 
the  Archbishop,  the  scholars  drew  their  arms  and 
threatened  his  life.  Then  he  hurried  back  to  Lon- 
don, leaving  the  Wycliffites  masters  of  the  field. 
Courtenay,  naturally  enraged  at  this  resistance  to 
his  authority,  sent  such  an  urgent  summons  to  the 
Chancellor,  calling  upon  him  to  attend  the  ad- 
journed meeting  of  the  Synod  on  June  12th,  that 
Rygge  did  not  venture  to  disobey. 

By  way  of  celebrating  the  long-desired  condemna- 
tion of  the  teaching  of  Wyclif — which  was  completed 
at  the  first  sitting  of  the  Synod — and  possibly  at  the 
same  time  commemorating  the  irruption  of  the 
peasants  and  the  murder  of  Sudbury,  the  bishops 
and  clergy  determined  upon  a  grand  open-air  pro- 
cession on  Whitsunday.  The  people  of  London 
were  already  keen  for  a  pageant  of  any  kind,  and 
they  gathered  together  in  crowds  to  see  the  priests 
and  devout  laymen  marching  barefoot  through  the 


308  John  Wyclif.  [1381- 

city  and  suburbs,  chaunting  the  litany  and  peniten- 
tial psalms.  After  the  procession  John  Kynyngham, 
the  Carmelite  Friar  (who  is  said  to  have  been  John 
of  Gaunt's  confessor,  though  he  certainly  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  Duke's  admiration  for  Wyclif — 
against  whose  Latin  treatise  De  Esse  he  had  argued 
long  and  drily  twenty  years  ago),  preached  a  sermon 
before  his  brethren  of  the  Synod,  and  publicly  re- 
peated their  condemnation  of  the  Oxford  heresies. 
He  pointed  the  moral  of  the  great  act  of  expiation 
which  had  just  been  performed  for  the  violated 
sanctity  of  the  mass ;  and,  if  the  reports  of  his  friends 
are  to  be  believed,  he  effected  at  least  one  note- 
worthy conversion.  A  certain  Cornelius  Clonne,  an 
old  soldier  and  a  Lollard,  was  turned  from  the  error 
of  his  ways  ;  and  so  strongly  was  he  affected  by  the 
exposure  of  Wyclif  s  blasphemies  that  on  the  follow- 
ing day,  whilst  attending  mass  in  the  church  of  the 
Black  Friars,  he  saw  with  his  own  eyes  .  .  . 
Perhaps  there  is  no  need  to  repeat  exactly  what  he 
saw ;  but  it  was  a  conclusive  argument  against  both 
Wyclif  and  the  orthodox  clergy ;  for,  if  it  was  not 
material  bread  and  wine,  it  was  just  as  little  the  acci- 
dents of  the  consecrated  host  without  a  subject. 

On  the  1 2th  of  June  the  Synod  met  again  in  Hol- 
born ;  and  there  were  present,  in  addition  to  many 
of  those  who  had  met  in  May,  Robert  Rygge, 
Laundreyn  and  Brygtwell,  Peter  Stokys  and  Henry 
Crompe,  Radeclyff,  Sutbraye,  the  monk  of  St. 
Alban's,  Bromyerde,  a  Black  friar  from  Cambridge, 
with  two  other  doctors  of  law  and  two  bachelors  of 
theology.     Stokys  would  now  be  able  to  repeat  the 


1382]  Courtenay  s  Triumph.  309 

story  of  his  treatment  at  Oxford  ;  but  it  was  not 
until  the  next  meeting  that  Crompe  was  in  a  posi- 
tion to  relate  how  he  had  been  suspended  by  the 
masters  for  speaking  of  Wyclif  and  his  followers  as 
heretics.  The  most  striking  feature  of  this  second 
sitting  was  the  humble  submission  of  the  Chancellor, 
who  is  said  to  have  gone  on  his  knees  to  the  Arch- 
bishop, and  accepted  the  discipline  of  Holy  Church. 
His  forgiveness  was  made  conditional  on  his  assist- 
ing to  extirpate  the  condemned  doctrine  from  the 
University  ;  but  when  the  Primate  gave  him  the  pro- 
clamation, which  denounced  Hereford,  Repyngdon, 
John  Aston,  and  Laurence  Bedenham,  suspending 
them  from  their  functions,  he  protested  that  it 
would  cost  him  his  life  to  enforce  it. 

"Then,"  said  Courtenay,  "  your  University  is  an 
open  fautor  of  heretics,  if  it  suffers  not  the  truth  to 
be  proclaimed  within  its  limits." 

Rygge  went  back  to  Oxford,  and  doubtless  made 
his  friends  acquainted  with  the  decision  of  the  Arch- 
bishop; but  he  certainly  took  no  action  against 
them.  He  had,  it  seems  most  probable,  been  elected 
this  year  as  the  champion  of  the  Wycliffite  party, 
and  could  not  have  retained  the  chancellorship  if  he 
had  turned  round  on  his  supporters. 

Courtenay  meanwhile  had  brought  other  influences 
to  bear  upon  the  Lollards.  Parliament  (at  any  rate 
the  Lords  and  the  King's  Council)  gave  him  the 
assistance  which  they  had  promised.  The  Duke  of 
Lancaster  made  the  Wycliffites  understand  that  they 
would  receive  no  further  help  from  him  ;  and  in  all 
probability  Wyclif  himself  was  ill  at  this  moment. 


310  John  Wyclif.  [i38i- 

Bedenham  is  not  mentioned  as  having  appeared 
before  the  Synod,  but  the  other  three  who  had 
been  suspended  now  thought  it  prudent,  or  were 
constrained,  to  answer  the  citation  of  the  Primate. 

The  third  sitting  had  been  fixed  for  June  14th. 
Hereford,  Aston,  and  Repyngdon  put  in  an  appear- 
ance, but  refused  to  make  the  recantation  which 
Courtenay  demanded.  He  gave  them  a  short 
respite,  and  appointed  a  fourth  meeting  for  June 
20th.  In  the  interval  Aston — himself  one  of  the  Poor 
Priests  against  whom  the  tide  had  turned  so  strongly 
— drew  up  a  manifesto  for  his  friends  outside,  in 
which  he  boldly  re-stated  his  conclusions.  The 
result  was  that  when  the  Synod  met  again  he  was 
formally  condemned  as  a  heretic.  But  once  more 
the  haughty  prelate — four  years  after  the  memor- 
able trial  at  Lambeth — was  interrupted  by  an  incur- 
sion of  Londoners,  who  had  been  moved  by  Aston's 
appeal,  and  could  not  restrain  themselves  when  they 
heard  that  he  had  been  condemned.  They  might 
indeed  have  been  headed  by  the  same  worthy  draper, 
John  of  Northampton,  who  came  to  the  help  of 
Wyclif  in  the  Archbishop's  chapel,  for  he  was  still 
a  warm  sympathiser  with  the  Lollards,  and  had 
not  yet  risen  to  the  dignity  of  the  mayoralty. 
Courtenay  gave  Hereford  and  Repyngdon  another 
eight  days  in  which  to  make  submission,  afterwards 
postponing  the  date  to  the  1st  of  July;  and,  as 
he  had  no  mind  to  be  interfered  with  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duty  by  the  obstreperous  citizens,  he 
changed  the  place  of  meeting  on  this  occasion  to 
Canterbury.      There  were  six    new  doctors  at    the 


1382]  Courtenay  s  Triumph.  3 1 1 

fifth  and  final  sitting  of  the  Synod,  including  Wil- 
liam Berton,  who  had  already  pronounced  against 
Wyclif  at  Oxford. 

Neither  Hereford  nor  Repyngdon  put  in  an  ap- 
pearance at  Canterbury,  and  they  were  both  con- 
demned in  their  absence.  From  the  final  record  of 
the  Synod  it  appeared  that  Courtenay  had  collected 
seventy-three  signatures  to  the  formal  condemnation 
of  Wyclif  s  conclusions. 

One  of  the  most  entertaining  of  the  songs,  Latin 
or  English,  bearing  upon  the  events  of  this  period, 
which  have  been  preserved  in  the  Cotton  manu- 
scripts, and  printed  by  Mr.  Wright  in  the  Rolls 
Series,  deals  with  the  Council  of  1382.  It  refers 
to  the  plague,  the  Peasants'  Revolt,  and  the  earth- 
quake, as  well  as  to  sundry  characters  in  the  drama 
of  Wyclifs  life  with  whom  the  reader  is  already 
acquainted.  It  may  perhaps  be  a  pardonable  licence 
to  quote  three  or  four  of  the  more  pertinent  stanzas 
of  this  Wyclifrite  poem. 

"  Armacam  quern  cselo  Dominus  coronavit, 
Discordes  tantomodo  fratres  adunavit ; 
Sed  magno  miraculo  Wyclif  coruscavit, 
Cum  fratres  et  monachos  simul  collocavit. 
With  an  O  and  an  I,  consortes  effecti, 
Quovis  adversario  dicunt,  sunt  protecti. 

M  Tunc  primus  determinans  est  Johannes  Wellis, 
Istos  viros  reprobans  cum  verbis  tencllis, 
Multum  conversatus  est  ventis  et  procellis  ; 
Hinc  in  ejus  facie  patet  color  fellis. 
With  an  O  and  an  I,  in  scholis  non  prodest, 
Imago  faciei  monstrat  qualis  hie  est. 


312  John  Wyclif.  [1381; 

"  Hie  promisit  in  scholis  quod  vellet  probare 
Wyclif  et  Herford  simul  dictis  repugnare  ; 
Sed  cum  hie  nescierat  plus  argumentare, 
Nichol  solvens  omnia  jussit  Bayard  stare. 

With  an  O  and  an  I,  Wellis  replicabat ; 

Sed  postquam  Nichol  solverat,  tunc  Johannes  stabat. 


Tunc  accessit  alius,  Stokis  nominatus, 
Rufus  naturaliter,  et  veste  dealbatus, 
Omnibus  impatiens,  et  nimis  elatus, 
Et  contra  veridicos  dirigens  conatus. 

With  an  O  and  an  I,  sub  tam  rubra  pelle 
Animus  non  habitat  nisi  unctus  felle." 


The  entry  made  in  the  Archbishop's  register  by 
Courtenay's  direction,  relating  to  the  condemnation 
of  Wyclif  in  1382,  is  printed  by  Wilkins  in  his 
Councils  of  Great  Britain.  It  is  of  course  set  forth 
in  Latin,  and  is  to  the  following  effect. 

"  Whereas  it  was  matter  of  common  repute 
amongst  the  nobles  and  the  people  of  England  that 
certain  heretical  conclusions,  and  some  which  were 
erroneous,  and  contrary  to  decisions  of  the  Church, 
which  aim  at  overthrowing  the  entire  Church,  and 
our  province  of  Canterbury,  and  the  peace  of  the 
realm,  had  been  generally,  commonly,  and  publicly 
professed  in  various  places  within  our  said  province  ; 
we,  William,  by  Divine  permission  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  Primate  of  all  England,  and  legate  of 
the  Apostolic  See,  having  taken  cognisance  of  these 
matters,  and  being  minded  to  exercise  the  functions 
of  our  office,  called  together  certain  venerable 
brethren,  our  suffragans  and  others,  and  many 
doctors  of  the  sacred  page,  of  the  canon  and  civil 


1382]  Courtenay  s  Triumph.  313 

law,  and  bachelors,  all  of  whom  we  believed  to  be 
the  most  reputed  and  able  of  the  realm,  and  most 
devout  in  maintaining  the  Catholic  faith,  whose 
names  are  included  below.  And  on  the  7th  day  of 
May,  A.  D.  1382,  in  a  chamber  within  the  confines 
of  the  priory  of  the  Preaching  Friars  of  London, 
under  our  presidency,  when  our  aforesaid  brethren 
had  been  called  together  and  were  in  personal  at- 
tendance, the  conclusions  already  mentioned,  the 
tenor  of  which  is  given  below,  were  openly  stated 
and  read  in  a  clear  and  distinct  voice  ;  and  we  charged 
our  aforesaid  brethren,  and  the  doctors  and  bache- 
lors, by  the  faith  whereby  they  were  bound  to  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  as  they  expected  to  answer 
at  the  day  of  judgment  before  the  Supreme  Judge, 
that  they  all  and  each  should  declare  to  us  their 
opinion  concerning  the  said  conclusions. 

"  And  finally,  when  a  discussion  had  been  held 
thereon,  on  the  21st  day  of  the  same  month,  our 
said  brethren  with  the  doctors  and  bachelors  appear- 
ing before  us  in  the  same  chamber,  and  the  said 
conclusions  having  been  read  out  a  second  time  and 
plainly  expounded,  when  we  and  all  who  were  pres- 
ent had  expressed  our  opinion,  it  was  declared — 
that  of  the  said  conclusions  some  were  heretical,  and 
others  erroneous,  and  contrary  to  the  decisions  of 
the  Church,  as  more  clearly  appears  below.  And 
whereas  we  have  discovered,  on  sufficient  informa- 
tion, that  the  said  conclusions  have  been  taught  in 
many  places  within  our  province  as  aforementioned, 
and  that  particular  persons  have  held  and  taught 
some  of  them,  and  that  they  have  been  strongly 


314  John  Wyclif.  [1381- 

and  notoriously  suspected  of  heresy,  we  have 
taken  the  following  proceedings  both  general  and 
particular." 

Long  entries  follow  in  the  same  register,  detailing 
the  inquiries  held  by  Courtenay  at  the  other  sittings, 
as  already  recorded.  But  as  they  give  us  little  or 
nothing  in  the  shape  of  question  and  answer,  and 
baldly  recite  the  opinions  and  acts  of  the  Archbishop 
himself,  they  are  hardly  worth  the  space  which  their 
transcription  would  occupy. 

Courtenay  had  struck  a  shrewd  blow  at  what  he 
naturally  considered  a  pestilent  and  fatal  heresy ; 
and  perhaps  there  was  not  another  bishop  on  the 
bench  who  would  have  done  it  half  so  thoroughly. 
But  if  he  flattered  himself  that  his  end  was  gained 
when  Wyclif  had  been  declared  a  heretic,  and  his 
principal  supporters  had  been  excommunicated,  he 
would  soon  be  undeceived  on  that  point.  The 
probability  is  that  he  knew  the  strength  of  Lollardy 
too  well  to  suppose  that  it  had  been  absolutely 
crushed  by  his  Synod,  or  that  either  pope  or  bishop 
or  monk  would  be  strong  enough  to  stem  and  to 
turn  the  advancing  tide  of  rationalism  in  matters  of 
doctrine.  None  the  less  did  he  fight  a  strong  and 
resolute  battle  for  the  faith  as  he  conceived  it.  He 
fought,  moreover,  so  far  as  one  can  see,  fairly  and 
aboveboard,  taking  no  mean  advantage,  giving 
plenty  of  notice  and  warning,  as  ready  to  remove 
his  censures  as  to  impose  them,  whenever  a  rebel 
against  the  authority  of  the  Church  submitted  him- 
self to  her  maternal  discipline.  No  one  could  be 
more  unyielding,  more  stern   and  arbitrary  in  the 


1382]  Courtenays  Triumph.  315 

face  of  defiant  opposition.  No  one,  if  his  acts  have 
been  read  aright,  could  be  more  magnanimous 
in  victory. 

In  Wyclif,  if  in  Wyclif  only,  he  found  a  will  and  a 
resolution  to  match  his  own.  Wyclif  never  yielded 
to  him — nor  to  Parliament,  nor  to  King,  nor  to  Pope. 
There  is  one  thing  stronger  than  'the  strongest  au- 
thority that  was  ever  set  up,  and  that  is  the  spirit  of 
revolt  against  wrong  based  upon  an  overwhelming 
conviction  of  truth.  Wyclif  had  such  a  conviction, 
and  nothing  on  earth  could  shake  him. 

"  Justum  ac  tenacem  propositi  virum 
Si  fractus  illabatur  orbis, 
Impavidum  ferient  ruinse." 

And  assuredly  Wyclif  had  suffered  and  was  yet  to 
suffer  more  than  enough  to  convulse  a  stronger  man. 
His  life  had  been  a  perpetual  struggle,  and  within 
the  last  seven  or  eight  years  he  was  never  free  from 
keen  antagonism.  The  friars  and  monks  had  poured 
the  vials  of  their  wrath  upon  him.  One  Pope  had 
launched  five  bulls  against  him,  and  another  was 
already  being  urged  to  summon  him  to  Rome.  The 
Primate  and  nine  bishops  had  solemnly  denounced 
him  as  a  heretic.  The  Chancellor  of  his  beloved  Uni- 
versity had  condemned  him  in  the  open  schools,  and 
forbidden  him  to  teach  what  he  believed  to  be  true. 
He  had  passed  through  dark  clouds  of  suspicion ; 
the  mother  and  the  uncle  of  the  King  had  ceased  to 
defend  him ;  Parliament,  which  used  to  ask  for  and 
follow  his  advice,  had  arraigned  him  as  a  disturber  of 
the  public  peace.     His  most   formidable   enemy,  at 


316  John  Wyclif.  H381- 

the  head  of  the  English  Church,  had  smitten  his 
friends,  hip  and  thigh,  until  they  were  either  dis- 
persed or  beginning  to  fail  in  the  hour  of  persecu- 
tion ;  and  now  the  hand  of  God  was  upon  him,  and 
he  must  have  felt  in  1382  that  his  days  on  earth  were 
numbered.  "  All  thy  storms  have  gone  over  me,"  he 
might  have  said  ;  w  I  am  feeble  and  sore  smitten ;  mine 
enemies  close  me  in  on  every  side."  Who  could  have 
wondered  if  he  had  faltered  in  the  end  of  his  life,  if 
he  had  shown  one  moment's  weakness,  or  compro- 
mised himself  by  one  impatient  word  ?  But  he  did 
nothing  of  this  kind.  He  stands  out  to  the  last,  amid 
the  storm  and  stress  of  persecution,  as  firm  as  the 
cliff  in  Teesdale  from  which  he  took  his  name. 

Wyclif  addressed  an  independent  petition  to  Par- 
liament, on  May  6,  1382,  urging  the  authorities  of  the 
realm  to  support  the  simple  faith  of  Christ,  indepen- 
dently of  the  errors  by  which  it  has  been  overlaid.  As 
to  the  form  of  this  petition  there  is  not  a  little  un- 
certainty, for  whilst  some  manuscripts  have  preserved 
a  long  "  Complainte  to  King  and  Parliament "  in 
English,  consisting  of  four  main  clauses  amply  ex- 
pounded, Walsingham  briefly  recapitulates  seven 
points,  which  do  not  correspond  with  the  English 
document.  Walsingham's  "  seven  interpretations  " 
are  as  follows : 

1.  Neither  the  King  nor  the  nation  ought  to  yield 
to  any  external  see  or  prelate.  2.  The  money  of  the 
realm  ought  not  to  be  sent  out  of  the  country,  to 
Rome,  to  Avignon,  or  elsewhere.  3.  Neither  cardi- 
nal nor  any  other  mart  ought  to  take  the  revenue  of  a 
church  or  prebend  in  England  unless  he  duly  resides 


1382i  Courienays  Triumph.  .  317 

there.  4.  The  King  and  his  realm  are  bound  to  over- 
throw those  who  betray  the  realm.  5.  The  Com- 
mons of  the  realm  ought  not  to  be  burdened  by  un- 
accustomed taxes,  until  the  patrimony  which  has  been 
given  to  the  clergy  has  been  exhausted.  6.  If  any 
bishop  or  beneficed  curate  has  notoriously  fallen  into 
contempt  of  God,  the  King  not  only  may  but  is 
bound  to  take  away  his  temporal  goods  [entrusted 
to  him  by  the  Church].  7.  The  King  ought  not  to 
set  a  bishop  or  a  curate  in  any  secular  office. 

There  is  evidently  not  much  in  these  propositions, 
unless  it  be  in  the  fifth,  which  would  make  them  par- 
ticularly appropriate  as  coming  from  Wyclif  at  that 
crisis  ;  and  they  had  all  been  maintained,  and  in  great 
measure  admitted,  by  King,  Parliament,  and  people, 
several  years  before.  But  the  "  Complainte  "  is  a 
dignified  and  carefully  considered  paper,  and  might 
well  have  been  presented  to  "  our  most  noble  and 
most  worthi  King  Richard,  kyng  both  of  Englond 
and  of  Fraunce,  and  to  the  noble  Duk  of  Lancastre, 
and  to  othere  grete  men  of  the  rewme,  bothe  to  sec- 
ulers  and  men  of  holi  Churche,  that  ben  gaderid  in 
the  Parlement."  The  first  point  in  this  petition  is 
that  the  rule  of  Christ  is  perfect  and  sufficient,  with- 
out any  other ;  that  the  clean  religion  of  Christ  was 
followed  by  the  apostles,  but  it  has  been  overlaid  by 
monks  and  friars.  If  their  rules  agree  with  that  of 
Christ,  they  should  be  known  by  Christ's  name,  not 
by  that  of  Francis  or  Dominic.  Therefore  it  is  peti- 
tioned "that  alle  persones  of  what  kynne  privat 
sectis,  or  singuler  religioun,  maad  of  sinful  men,  may 
freely,  withouten  eny  lettinge  or  bodily  peyne,  leve 


318  yohn  Wyclif.  tl381- 

that  privat  reule  or  neue  religion  founded  of  sinful 
men,  and  stably  holde  the  reule  of  Jesus  Crist." 
The  second  demand  is  that  all  who  have  denied  the 
power  of  the  King  to  deal  with  the  temporalities  of 
the  Church  should  be  condemned.  The  third  is  that 
tithes  and  offerings  should  be  taken  away  or  withheld 
from  clergy  of  immoral  life. 

"Ah,  Lord  God,"  Wyclif  writes  on  this  point, 
"  is  it  reason  to  constrain  the  poor  people  to  provide 
a  worldly  priest,  however  unworthy  of  life  and  of 
knowledge,  in  pomp  and  pride,  covetise  and  envy, 
gluttony  and  drunkenness  and  lechery,  in  simony 
and  heresy,  with  fat  horse  and  jolly  and  gay  sad- 
dles, and  bridles  ringing  by  the  roadside,  and  him- 
self with  costly  clothes  and  pelure,  and  to  suffer 
their  wives  and  children,  and  their  poor  neighbours, 
to  perish  for  hunger,  thirst,  cold,  and  other  mis- 
chiefs of  the  world  ?  Ah,  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  since 
within  few  years  men  paid  their  tithes  and  offerings 
at  their  own  will  free,  to  good  men  and  able,  for  the 
worship  of  God  and  the  profit  of  Holy  Church 
fighting  on  earth,  must  a  worldly  priest  destroy  this 
holy  and  approved  custom,  constraining  men  to 
abandon  this  freedom,  and  turning  tithes  and  offer- 
ings into  wicked  uses  !  " 

The  fourth  point  in  the  petition — -and  it  was  prob- 
ably for  this  in  chief  that  Wyclif  wrote  and  pre- 
sented it — raises  the  special  question  of  the  sacrament, 
on  which  the  Reformer  had  but  recently  declared 
himself,  and  which  his  enemies  had  magnified  into 
the  rankest  and  most  unforgiveable  of  all  his 
heresies.     Let    us   return    once    more    to    Wyclif  s 


1382]  Courtenays  Triumph,  319 

simple,  rough,  and  nervous  English.  He  prays 
"  that  Christis  techinge  and  bileve  of  the  sacrament 
of  his  owne  body,  that  is  pleynly  taught  by  Crist 
and  his  apostelis  in  gospellis  and  pistillis,  may  be 
taught  opinly  in  chirchis  to  Cristen  puple,  and  the 
contrarie  teching  and  fals  bileve,  brought  up  by 
cursed  ypocritis  and  heretikis  and  worldly  prestis, 
unkunnynge  in  Goddis  lawe,  distried.  .  .  Dampne 
we  this  cursed  heresie  of  Anticrist  and  his  ypocritis 
and  worldly  prestis,  seiynge  that  this  sacrament  is 
neither  bred  ne  Cristis  body,  but  accidentis  without- 
en  suget,  and  therunder  is  Cristis  body.  For  this  is 
not  taught  in  holy  writt." 

Once  again  after  his  condemnation  by  the  Synod 
of  Blackfriars  he  came  face  to  face  with  Courtenay 
— if  we  are  to  accept  on  this  point  the  evidence  of 
one  or  two  contemporaries  who  are  not  invariably 
correct  in  dealing  with  the  successive  stages  of  his 
career.  The  resistance  of  Oxford  to  Courtenay's 
authority  was  not  at  an  end  when  the  decision  of 
the  seventy-three  doctors  had  been  made  public ; 
but  Parliament  or  the  King's  Council  armed  the 
Primate  with  new  powers,  including  that  of  im- 
prisonment, and  he  went  up  to  his  old  University 
in  the  middle  of  November  in  order  to  drive  the 
nail  home.  On  the  18th  he  held  a  Conference  at 
St.  Frideswide's,  being  attended  by  the  Bishops  of 
Lincoln,  Norwich,  London,  Salisbury,  Hereford,  and 
Winchester.*  Knyghton  tells  us  that  Wyclif 
answered  in  person  before  this  Conference  ;  and  he 

*  Wykeham  had  just  established  his  college   for  boys,   and  the 
walls  of  New  College  were  steadily  rising. 


320  John  Wyclif,  [1381- 

adds  a  document  which  he  seems  to  regard  as  a 
withdrawal  or  submission  on  the  part  of  the  delin- 
quent. It  is  clearly  nothing  of  the  kind.  Wyclif 
merely  repeats  the  general  admission  which  he  had 
made  several  times  already  concerning  the  spiritual 
identity  of  the  consecrated  host  with  the  body  of 
Christ  ;  and  he  ends  substantially  as  follows : 

"  You  must  admit  how  great  a  difference  there  is 
between  us  who  believe  that  this  sacrament  is  actual 
and  natural  bread,  and  the  heretics  who  tell  us  that 
it  is  an  accident  without  a  subject.  For  before  the 
enemy  and  father  of  lies  was  loosed  (in  the  first 
thousand  years  of  Christendom),  this  '  gabbing ' 
was  never  devised.  And  how  great  a  difference 
there  is  between  us  who  believe  that  this  sacrament 
is  true  bread  in  its  kind,  but  sacramentally  God's 
body,  and  the  heretics  who  believe  and  tell  us  that 
this  sacrament  can  in  no  way  be  God's  body.  For 
I  am  bold  to  say  that,  if  this  were  truth,  Christ 
and  his  saints  were  heretics,  and  the  greater  part 
of  holy  church  at  this  moment  believes  in  heresy. 
And  herefor  devout  men  suppose  that  this  Coun- 
cil of  Friars  at  London  was  with  earth-din.  For 
they  put  a  heresy  on  Christ  and  the  saints  in  heaven  : 
wherefore  the  earth  trembled,  failing  man's  voice  to 
answer  for  God,  as  it  did  in  time  of  his  passion, 
when  he  was  condemned  to  bodily  death. 

"  Christ  and  his  mother  (who  destroyed  all  heresies 
in  the  ground)  keep  his  Church  in  the  true  faith  of 
this  sacrament,  and  lead  the  King  and  his  Govern- 
ment to  require  of  her  clerks  and  all  her  posses- 
sionem, under  penalty  of  losing  their  temporalities, 


ST.  FRIDESWIDE'S  SHRINE. 

THE    LATIN    CHAPEL,   CHRIST   CHURCH    CATHEDRAL,  OXFORD. 


1382]  Courtenays  Triumph.  321 

that  they  teach  truly  the  nature  of  the  sacrament, 
and  of  all  the  Orders  of  Friars,  under  penalty  of 
losing  their  privileges,  that  they  do  the  same.  For 
I  am  sure  of  the  third  part  of  the  clergy,  who  main- 
tain these  positions  here  defined,  that  they  will 
defend  them  at  the  cost  of  their  lives." 

If  this  confident  reassertion  and  retort  was  in 
reality  uttered  by  Wyclif  in  person  before  Courte- 
nay,  Wykeham,  Gilbert,  and  the  rest,  we  can  easily 
imagine  how  it  would  trouble  them,  and  perhaps 
exasperate  them.  Whether  he  did  or  did  not  see 
the  bishops  at  this  time  depends  very  much  upon 
the  date  of  his  first  stroke  of  paralysis.  One  account, 
which  comes  to  us  at  second  or  third  hand,  and 
which  shall  be  quoted  by  and  by,  says  that  he  had  a 
minor  stroke  about  two  years  before  the  major 
stroke  which  carried  him  off  at  the  end  of  1384.  By 
the  minor  stroke  it  seems  that  he  was  partly  dis- 
abled, and  it  may  well  be  that  movement  was  difficult 
for  him  in  the  year  of  the  Synod,  and  that,  in  point 
of  fact,  those  who  wanted  to  see  him  had  to  come  to 
the  side  of  his  couch  or  his  study  chair.  Already 
in  1379,  as  we  have  seen,  he  had  been  seriously  ill, 
and  is  described  as  calling  on  his  attendants  to  raise 
him  up  in  bed,  and  put  him  face  forward  before  the 
aggressive  friars.  But  then,  at  all  events,  he  seems 
to  have  recovered  both  in  body  and  in  mental 
vigour.  For  the  last  two  years  of  his  life  he  was 
manifestly  disabled  ;  but  this  is  precisely  the  period 
during  which  his  active  mind  and  hand  were  most 
productive.  At  any  rate  the  period  following  his 
great  conversion  or  perversion  on  the  subject  of  the 


322  John  Wyclif.  ti38l- 

sacrament,  the  four  or  five  years  following  his  first 
illness,  found  him  constantly  engaged  in  what 
turned  out  to  be  the  main  and  most  durable  occu- 
pations of  his  life. 

Meanwhile  he  was  compelled  to  leave  Oxford,  and 
his  brilliant  university  career  of  nearly  half  a  century 
was  brought  to  an  end.  He  ceased  to  reside,  prob- 
ably ceased  even  to  visit,  ceased  to  lecture  and  de- 
termine, and  contented  himself  with  a  quiet  existence 
in  his  Lutterworth  rectory.  Courtenay's  powers 
were  sufficiently  extensive  to  impose  this  retirement 
upon  Wyclif,  even  if  he  had  been  unwilling  to  give 
up  his  Oxford  work ;  and  the  Primate  was  not  likely 
to  be  satisfied  with  anything  less.  Moreover,  some  of 
the  men  on  whom  the  discipline  of  the  Church  had 
fallen  were  no  longer  able  to  stand  by  Wyclif 's  side  ; 
and,  though  there  was  still  plenty  of  fight  left  in  him, 
he  would  have  found  his  position  in  the  University 
untenable  if  he  had  persisted  in  defying  the  Primate. 
With  a  hostile  Chancellor,  with  Rygge  almost  de- 
spairing of  the  cause,  with  Hereford,  Aston,  Repyng- 
don,  and  Bedenham  either  excommunicated,  or  sub- 
missive, or  sedulously  keeping  out  of  the  way,  and 
with  regulars  and  seculars  combining  against  him, 
there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  bid  farewell  to  the 
home  in  which  his  heart  had  become  familiar,  and  to 
the  focus  of  light  and  zeal  which  his  own  hand  had 
done  so  much  to  maintain. 

Oxford  could  ill  afford  to  lose  him.  The  last  of 
the  Schoolmen  was  gone,  the  dignity  of  the  old  scho- 
lastic learning  had  suffered  a  rude  reverse,  and  the 
first  sparks  of  the  new  enlightenment  might  seem  to 


1382]  Courtenays  Triumph.  323 

have  been  extinguished.  Wyclif's  presence  had  been 
so  large,  his  influence  over  the  thought  of  the  Univer- 
sity had  been  so  commanding,  that  he  had  broken 
the  narrower  groove  in  which  his  own  life  began, 
whilst  the  groove  which  he  made  for  others  had  been 
broken  by  the  Church.  After  Wyclif,  no  scholar 
could  be  a  Schoolman  ;  and  the  new'  founts  of  schol- 
arship, such  as  the  spirit  of  inquiry,  the  hardihood  of 
logic,  the  candour  of  an  open  mind,  were  in  some 
sense  under  a  ban.  All  studies  and  all  books  ex- 
cept those  prescribed  by  special  statutes  were  hence- 
forth forbidden.  Everything  written  by  Wyclif,  or 
by  any  of  those  who  were  alleged  to  have  been  his 
followers,  was  confiscated  and  destroyed.  The  gold- 
en age  of  Oxford  had  come  to  an  end. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE   LAST   STAGE. 


SOLATED  at  the  end  of  his 
life,  except  for  the  few  friends 
who  gathered  round  him  or 
came  to  see  him  in  his  Leices- 
tershire parsonage,  John  Wy- 
clif  devoted  himself  more  and 
more  to  his  literary  labours. 
In  addition  to  the  revised 
version  of  the  Bible,  of  which 
something  has  been  said  in  a  previous  chapter,  he 
continued  the  writing  and  circulation  of  English 
treatises,  without  entirely  abandoning  the  use  of 
Latin.  The  Trialogus,  for  instance,  which  contains 
references  to  the  attempted  suppression  of  his  Poor 
Priests,  must  have  been  produced  in  one  of  the  last 
three  years,  probably  in    1383*;  but  it  was   in  his 


*  The  Trialogus  is  in  the  form  of  a  conversation  on  the  nature  of 
God,  men,  and  angels,  on  virtue  and  sin,  on  grace  and  liberty  ;  on  the 

3?4 


?JwmJwa/im 


JOHN   WYCLIF. 

THE   DORSET   PORTRAIT. 


1383]  The  Last  Stage.  325 

mother  tongue  that  he  now  almost  invariably  wrote, 
,  as  though  he  would  turn  aside  from  the  language  of 
the  men  who  had  condemned  his  teaching,  and  seek 
■  "  a  reversal  of  their  judgment  from  those  who,  after  all, 
had  always  commanded  his  best  service  and  sympa- 
thies. 

Before  he  left  Oxford  he  had  collected  his  English 
sermons,  and  had  written  some  at  least  of  the  expo- 
sitions in  which  he  sought  to  simplify  theology  for 
unlearned  readers.  The  last  stage  of  Wyclif  s  life  saw 
him  virtually  transformed  into  a  writer  of  tracts  for 
the  times — not  so  much  of  controversial  and  political 
pamphlets  as  of  expository  tracts,  clearly  intended  to 
give  popular  interpretations  of  Scripture  and  religious 
worship,  for  the  benefit  of  humble  folk  who  could 
understand  no  language  but  their  mother  tongue. 
He  evidently  believed  that  in  thus  writing  he  was 

sacraments,  and  on  the  four  ends  of  man.  Written  as  it  was  towards 
the  close  of  Wyclif 's  life,  it  embodies  most  of  his  deliberate  conclu- 
sions, and  has  consequently  been  a  happy  hunting-ground  for  the 
orthodox  in  search  of  heresies.  The  gist  of  what  Wyclif  has  to  say 
on  every  point  is  practically  this  :  that  where  the  Church  and  the  Bible 
do  not  agree,  we  must  prefer  the  Bible  ;  that  where  authority  and  con- 
science appear  to  be  rival  guides,  we  shall  be  much  safer  in  following 
conscience  ;  that  where  the  letter  and  the  spirit  seem  to  be  in  conflict, 
the  spirit  is  above  the  letter.  If  the  foundations  of  these  maxims  are 
true,  it  is  clear  that  they  afford  scope  for  any  number  of  logical  hyper- 
boles ;  and  no  acute  writer  of  that  age  could  by  any  possibility  resist 
the  tendency  to  hyperbole.  Amongst  the  charges  brought  against 
Wyclif  on  the  strength  of  the  Trialogus  was  that  he  made  light  of  the 
sacrament  of  marriage;  and  this  merely  because  he  wrote  that  "I 
will  take  this  woman  "  is  a  stronger  pledge  than  "  I  take  this  woman." 
He  only  meant  that  the  intention  was  of  greater  importance  than  the 
act  which  displayed  the  intention  ;  but  his  enemies  twisted  the  saying 
into  something  very  serious. 


326  John  Wyclif.  £1383- 

making  his  appeal  to  the  great  majority  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church,  just  as  in  his  earlier  life  he  had  been  ad- 
dressing reasonable  men  and  scholars  throughout  the 
various  parts  of  Christendom.  To  the  latter  he  had 
spoken  directly,  in  the  tongue  common  to  learned 
men  of  all  nations.  Long  since  he  had  felt  a  com- 
punction on  behalf  of  the  unlearned  men  of  his  own 
country,  who  had  only  been  reached  at  second  hand 
through  the  language  of  the  schools  and  the  Latin 
treatises.  Now,  when  God  had  given  him  rest  and 
seclusion,  and  had  "laid  his  constraint  upon  him" 
(as  he  presently  told  Pope  Urban),  he  was  more  than 
ever  spurred  to  talk  to  his  countrymen  in  a  tongue 
which  they  could  understand,  and  to  use  great  plain- 
ness of  speech,  before  the  seal  was  set  upon  his  lips, 
and  the  long  night  closed  over  him. 

We  have  seen  already  that  a  large  number  of 
English  tracts  were  written  by  members  of  the  Wy- 
cliffite  and  Lollard  school  of  thought,  many  of  which 
were  afterwards  attributed  to  Wyclif  himself ;  and 
it  has  been  pointed  out  that  it  would  be  difficult,  if 
not  absolutely  impossible,  to  establish  a  canon  of 
authenticity  in  regard  to  them.  An  individual  mind, 
familiar  with  the  unquestioned  works  of  Wyclif, 
might  set  apart  to  its  own  satisfaction  the  unsigned, 
undated,  and  generally  untitled  tracts  which  belong 
to  the  master,  and  not  to  any  of  his  disciples.  But 
at  best  it  would  be  largely  a  matter  of  conjecture, 
and  the  result  could  never  be  definitive.  The  inter- 
nal evidence  derived  from  the  language  alone  is 
of  comparatively  little  value.  We  might  get  so  far 
as  to  say  with  confidence  "This  text  is  northern," 


1384]  The  Last  Stage.  327 

or  "  This  writer  spoke  the  same  dialect  as  Langland," 
but  it  would  be  very  hazardous  to  say,  on  the 
strength  of  so  many  vocables  and  grammatical 
forms,  "  Wyclif  himself  wrote  this,  and  no  other 
man  of  northern  origin,  of  Oxford  training,  and  of 
occasional  sojourn  in  London."  The  English  of  the 
fourteenth  century  was  in  a  specially  plastic  and 
evolutionary  phase ;  the  yeast  of  stimulated  thought 
was  constantly  changing  its  form ;  the  same  writer 
presents  a  varying  model  at  different  stages  of  his 
life.  Chaucer's  prose  is  not  identical  in  point  of 
language  with  his  poems ;  the  Knighfs  Tale  may 
be  readily  discriminated  from  his  earlier  essays  in 
verse ;  and  even  in  the  same  poem  we  find  words 
which  are  used  in  two  or  more  forms. 

Wyclif  doubtless  varied  in  this  way,  as  his 
contemporaries  did  ;  and  thus  we  should  be  slow  to 
say  that  a  particular  piece  was  either  his  or  not  his, 
on  this  score  alone.  But  when  we  add  to  the  testi- 
mony of  the  words  that  of  idiom,  manner,  turn  of 
expression,  and  habit  of  thought,  unquestionably 
there  is  a  better  foundation  to  go  upon.  There  are 
sundry  English  works  which  have  been  universally 
attributed  to  Wyclif,  which  raise  no  question  in  the 
mind,  but  rather  produce  a  conviction  of  authen- 
ticity as  they  are  read,  and  of  which  the  date  of 
writing  is  fixed  between  the  years  1382  and  1384  by 
the  mention  of  events  then  in  progress. 

Of  these,  two  or  three  are  especially  characteristic 
of  Wyclif —  The  Church  and  Her  Members,  the  Great 
Sentence  of  Curse,  and  the  tract  on  the  Schism  of  the 
Roman  Pontiffs.  In  each  of  them  there  is  a  reference 


328  John   Wyclif.  C1383- 

to  the  internecine  war  of  the  rival  vicars  of  Christ — 
"  the  unkouthe  discencion  that  is  betwixt  thes 
popes  " — with  further  reference  to  the  campaign  in 
Flanders  and  the  proclamations  of  Pope  Urban  and 
the  English  bishops  on  behalf  of  their  crusade 
against  the  cross.  In  Wyclif  s  eyes,  we  may  be 
sure,  this  particular  outcome  of  the  great  Schism 
was  the  worst  of  the  long  series  of  scandals  which 
had  been  presented  to  Christendom  by  the  Papacy. 
It  is  probable  enough  that  he  would  refer  to  it  in 
everything  which  he  wrote  during  his  later  years. 

Bishop  Despenser  of  Norwich,  whom  Urban  ap- 
pointed to  lead  the  crusade  against  the  friends  of 
Pope  Clement  in  Flanders,  had  been  nominated  to 
his  see  by  papal  provision  when  he  was  a  young 
soldier  of  thirty.  His  martial  tastes  led  him  to  take 
part  in  the  suppression  of  the  Peasants'  Revolt  in 
1 38 1,  when  he  attacked  and  dispersed  John  Littes- 
ter's  contingent  at  North  Walsham.  It  was  at  the 
end  of  1382  that  Urban's  bulls,  proclaiming  the 
crusade  and  granting  plenary  indulgence  to  all  who 
took  part  in  it,  were  sanctioned  by  the  King  and 
Parliament.  Courtenay  published  them,  and  so  no 
doubt  did  other  bishops,  including  Despenser  him- 
self. The  disastrous  expedition  lasted  from  May 
till  September,  1383,  and  there  would  thus  be 
nearly  a  year  during  which  the  subject  was  one 
of  present  interest  in  the  minds  of  Englishmen, 
as  well  as  a  rock  of  offence  to  vast  numbers  of 
pious  Churchmen. 

Wyclif  saw  in  this  war  of  popes  for  temporal 
authority   and  possessions  a  striking  instance    and 


1384]  The  Last  Stage.  329 

confirmation  of  all  that  he  had  said  about  the  cor- 
ruptions of  the  Roman  pontiffs  in  the  second 
millennium.  The  majority  of  the  friars,  also,  were 
enthusiastic  about  the  crusade,  and  this  was  a  fact 
which  certainly  would  not  tend  to  qualify  the  indig- 
nation of  the  old  Reformer  whom  they  had  so 
persistently  and  successfully  attacked.  The  tract 
on  the  Schism  is  largely  occupied  with  a  reasoned 
condemnation  of  the  offer  of  indulgences  for  the 
special  purpose  and  advantage  of  Pope  Urban  ;  and 
possibly  this  very  tract  provided  Martin  Luther,  more 
than  a  century  later,  with  some  of  his  arguments 
against  the  huckstering  of  pardons  in  his  own  day. 

In  The  Church  and  Her  Members,  Wyclif  devotes 
one  or  two  chapters  to  the  misdeeds  of  the  friars, 
and  to  the  special  injuries  which  they  had  brought 
upon  the  Church  of  Christ.  "  They  despoil  the 
people  in  many  ways  by  hypocrisies  and  other  false- 
hoods, and  with  the  spoils  they  build  Caym's  castles,* 
to  the  damage  of  the  countries  where  they  build 
them.  They  steal  poor  men's  children,  which  is 
worse  than  stealing  an  ox  ;  and  they  are  particularly 
glad  to  steal  heirs  (I  say  nothing  of  the  stealing  of 
women)  .  .  .  They  stir  up  nations  to  war,  and 
peaceable  men  to  lawsuits  ;  they  cause  many  divorces 
and  many  marriages  without  love,  by  the  falsehoods 
which  they  tell,  and  by  privileges  of  the  court.  I 
will  not  speak  of  the  fighting  that  they  do  in  one 
land  or  another,  and  of  other  bodily  harms  which 

*  "  Caim's  Castles."  This  was  Wyclif 's  name  for  the  houses  of  the 
friars,  made  up  of  the  initials  of  the  Carmelites,  Augustinians,  Jaco- 
bites (Dominicans),  and  Minorites. 


330  John  Wyclif.  [1383- 

are  too  many  for  the  tongue  to  tell.  For,  however 
much  they  waste  the  goods  of  men,  so  much  and  yet 
more  do  they  bring  hurt  upon  the  nations,  as  in  this 
last  expedition  that  Englishmen  made  into  Flanders, 
when  they  despoiled  our  realm  of  men  and  money, 
more  than  the  friars  have  taken  for  themselves.  And 
Englishmen  did  not  for  a  moment  doubt  their 
bringing  this  expedition  to  pass,  by  their  preaching, 
collecting,  and  personal  exertions.  Even  the  friars 
who  seem  to  be  blameless  in  this  matter  could  not 
escape  giving  their  assent ;  for  one  manner  of  consent 
is  when  a  man  keeps  silence,  and  does  not  speak  up. 
And  if  friars  are  slipping  out  of  it  now,  and  saying 
that  they  never  held  with  it,  they  are  only  resorting 
to  their  old  craft  of  gabbing." 

The  sharp  and  spirited  criticism  which  the  old 
Rector  of  Lutterworth  had  directed  for  some  time 
against  the  schismatics  and  their  partisans  must  have 
shrewdly  touched  those  to  whom  it  particularly  ap- 
plied. The  English  friars,  who  had  not  for  a 
moment  ceased  to  rail  and  write  against  Wyclif, 
took  the  tracts  of  the  impenitent  heretic  very  much 
to  heart,  and  the  disgraceful  failure  of  the  Flanders 
crusade  would  doubtless  exasperate  their  bitter  ani- 
mosity. They  seem  now  to  have  sent  fresh  allega- 
tions of  heresy  to  Rome,  and  Urban  replied,  after  no 
long  delay,  by  citing  Wyclif  to  appear  before  his 
court. 

If  Urban  knew  the  crippled  state  in  which  the 
English  doctor  had  been  living  for  more  than  a 
year,  this  summons  to  Rome  was  hardly  less  than 
barbarous.     Though  the  Pope  may  not  have  known 


1384]  The  Last  Stage.  331 

it,  the  friars  did ;  and  the  malignity  of  their  hatred 
towards  a  brave  enemy  who  was  so  evidently  marked 
for  early  death  may  be  judged  from  the  persistency 
with  which,  under  such  circumstances,  they  tried  to 
hurry  forward  the  last  stages  of  his  prosecution. 

Wyclif  was  unquestionably  at  this  time  disabled 
for  travelling,  and  with  the  best  intention  he  could 
not  have  made  the  long  and  troublesome  journey  to 
Urban's  court.  He  therefore  sent  an  excuse,  with  a 
formal  statement  of  his  attitude  towards  the  Pope — 
writing  it,  of  course,  in  Latin  ;  and  either  he  or  one 
of  his  friends  made  the  following  English  version, 
slightly  amplified  by  the  translator,  in  order  that  his 
countrymen  might  know  why  he  had  not  obeyed 
the  summons : 

"  I  joyfully  admit  myself  bound  to  tell  to  all  true 
men  the  belief  that  I  hold,  and  especially  to  the 
Pope  ;  for  I  suppose  that  if  my  faith  be  rightful,  and 
given  of  God,  the  Pope  will  gladly  confirm  it ;  and  if 
my  faith  be  error,  the  Pope  will  wisely  amend  it.  I 
suppose,  moreover,  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the 
heart  of  the  body  of  God's  law  ;  for  I  believe  that 
Jesus  Christ,  that  gave  in  his  own  person  his  Gospel, 
is  very  God  and  very  man,  and  by  this  heart  passes 
all  other  laws.  Above  this,  I  suppose  that  the  Pope 
is  most  obliged  to  the  keeping  of  the  Gospel  among 
all  men  that  live  here  ;  for  the  Pope  is  highest  vicar 
that  Christ  has  here  in  earth.  For  the  superiority  of 
Christ's  vicar  is  not  measured  by  worldly  superiority, 
but  by  this,  that  this  vicar  follows  Christ  more 
closely  by  virtuous  living ;  for  the  Gospel  teaches 
that  this  is  the  sentence  of  Christ. 


332  yohn  Wyctif.  tl383- 

"And  from  this  Gospel  I  take  it  as  a  matter  of 
belief  that  Christ,  during  the  time  he  walked  here, 
was  the  poorest  of  men,  both  in  spirit  and  in  goods ; 
for  Christ  says  that  he  had  nought  to  rest  his  head 
upon.  And  Paul  says  that  he  was  made  needy  for 
love  of  us.  And  poorer  could  no  man  be,  neither 
bodily  nor  in  spirit.  And  thus  Christ  put  from  him 
all  manner  of  worldly  lordship.  For  the  Gospel  of 
John  tells  that,  when  they  would  have  made  Christ 
king,  he  fled  and  hid  himself  from  them,  for  he  would 
have  no  such  worldly  greatness. 

"  And  above  this  I  accept  it  as  a  matter  of  belief 
that  no  man  should  follow  the  Pope,  or  any  saint 
now  in  heaven,  except  in  so  far  as  he  follows  Christ. 
For  John  and  James  erred  when  they  coveted  worldly 
greatness  ;  and  Peter  and  Paul  sinned  also  when  they 
denied  and  blasphemed  in  Christ ;  but  men  should 
not  follow  them  in  this,  for  at  that  time  they  were 
parting  from  Jesus  Christ.  From  this  I  take  it  as  a 
sound  counsel  that  the  Pope  should  abandon  his 
worldly  lordship  to  worldly  lords,  as  Christ  has  given 
them,  and  at  once  persuade  all  his  clerks  to  do  the 
same.  For  thus  did  Christ,  and  thus  he  taught  his 
disciples,  until  the  fiend  had  blinded  this  world.  And 
lit  seems  to  some  men  that  clerks  who  continue  to 
abide  in  this  error  against  the  law  of  God,  and  cease 
to  follow  Christ  in  this,  are  open  heretics,  and  such 
as  support  them  are  partners  in  their  sin. 

"  And  if  I  err  in  this  opinion,  I  am  willing  meekly  to 
be  corrected — yea,  even  by  death,  if  it  be  skilful  [right- 
ful], for  that  I  hope  would  be  a  blessing  to  me.  And  if 
I  might  travel  in  my  own  person,  I  would  with  good 


1384]  The  Last  Stage.  333 

will  go  to  the  Pope.  But  God  has  laid  his  constraint 
upon  me  to  the  contrary,  and  has  taught  me  to  obey 
God  rather  than  man.  And  I  suppose  of  our  Pope 
that  he  will  not  be  Antichrist,  and  oppose  Christ  in 
his  working,  to  the  contrary  of  Christ's  will ;  for  if 
he  summon  against  reason,  by  himself  or  any  of  his 
servants,  and  follow  up  his  unskilful  summoning,  he 
is  an  open  Antichrist.  And  merciful  intention  did 
not  save  Peter  from  being  called  Satan  by  Christ ;  so 
blind  intention  and  wicked  advice  do  not  excuse  the 
Pope  here ;  but  if  he  require  of  true  priests  that  they 
should  travel  more  than  is  possible  for  them,  he  is 
not  relieved  from  the  charge  of  being  Antichrist. 
For  our  faith  teaches  us  that  our  blessed  God  suffers 
us  not  to  be  tempted  beyond  our  ability.  Why 
should  man  require  such  service? 

"  Wherefore  we  pray  to  God  for  our  Pope  Urban 
VI.,  that  his  former  good  disposition  may  not  be 
quenched  by  his  enemies.  And  Christ,  that  may 
not  lie,  says  that  a  man's  enemies  are  specially  those 
of  his  own  household." 

It  was  his  last  word  to  Rome.  For  all  we  know, 
it  may  have  been  the  last  word  of  controversy  or 
argument  which  he  wrote  in  his  lifetime.  The  date 
of  the  citation  is  not  ascertained,  but  this  letter  to 
the  Pope  was  apparently  one  of  the  latest  occur- 
rences in  Wyclifs  life  of  which  we  possess  any 
record.  He  lived  till  the  close  of  1384,  and  then,  as 
was  right  and  fitting,  in  his  own  church  at  Lutter- 
worth, on  the  feast  of  the  Holy  Innocents,  at  the 
elevation  of  the  host,  in  the  very  act  of  reasonable 
and  reverent  worship,  the  light  went  out.     He  lay 


334  John  Wyclif.  [1383- 

for  a  few  days,  watched  and  tended  by  those  who 
had  clung  to  him  in  his  direst  extremity,  and  who 
must  have  been  prepared  for  this  closing  scene  ever 
since  the  illness  of  1382.  Most  of  all,  we  may  be 
sure,  the  veteran  himself,  who  had  continued  his 
battle  for  the  truth  without  the  slightest  intermis- 
sion, had  never  buckled  on  his  armour  in  the  morning 
without  reminding  himself  how  feeble  was  the  hold 
which  he  had  upon  life. 

Wyclif's  enemies  could  only  regard  his  death  from 
one  point  of  view,  as  the  judgment  of  God  upon  the 
greatest  of  sinners.  The  account  of  Walsingham  is 
very  much  what  we  might  expect  of  the  pious  and 
superstitious  monk  of  St.  Alban's.  On  the  feast  of 
St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  he  says,  "  Organum  dia- 
bolicum,  hostis  Ecclesite,  confusio  vulgi,  haereti- 
corum  idolum,  hypocritarum  speculum,  schismatis 
incentor,  odii  seminator,  mendacii  fabricator, 
Johannes  de  Wyclif — whilst  he  was  about  to  spue 
forth  against  Saint  Thomas  himself  (as  they  tell  us) 
invectives  and  blasphemies  in  the  sermon  which  he 
had  prepared  to  preach,  was  suddenly  smitten  by 
the  judgment  of  God,  and  felt  that  paralysis  had 
spread  over  his  whole  body.  Thus  his  mouth,  which 
had  spoken  high-swelling  words  against  God  and 
his  saints,  or  against  holy  church,  presented  a  horrid 
spectacle  to  those  who  gazed  at  him,  being  twisted 
out  of  shape;  his  tongue  was  stricken  dumb  and 
refused  him  utterance  ;  his  wagging  head  proclaimed 
that  the  curse  of  God  against  Cain  had  fallen  upon 
him.  And,  as  they  who  were  present  at  his  death 
inform    us,    he    manifestly    despaired    in    his    last 


RICHARD  FLEMMYNQ,   BISHOP  OF  LINCOLN. 

FOUNDER   OF    LINCOLN    COLLEGE,    OXFORD. 


13841  The  Last  Stage,  335 

moments,  so  that  all  may  recognise  without  doubt 
his  affinity  to  Cain.  And  such  was  the  end  of  all 
his  wickedness." 

But  the  most  direct  and  credible  testimony  which 
has  reached  us  concerning  the  death  of  Wyclif  is  that 
presented  by  Dr.  Thomas  Gascoigne,  who  wrote 
down  in  1441  the  sworn  evidence  o'f  an  eye-witness. 
The  paper  is  not  long,  and  it  is  of  sufficient  import- 
ance to  be  quoted  in  full. 

"  Master  John  Wycliff,  an  English  priest,  was 
excommunicated  after  his  death  by  Thomas  Arun- 
dell,  the  lord  bishop  (sic)  of  Canterbury,  and  subse- 
quently he  was  disinterred  by  a  doctor  of  theology  of 
Oxford,  by  name  Master  Richard  Flemmyng,  of  the 
diocese  of  York,  and  now  bishop  of  Lincoln  ;  and 
his  bones  were  burnt,  and  his  ashes  were  scattered 
in  a  stream  near  to  Lyttyrwort — by  order  of  the 
pope  Martin  V. 

"And  the  same  Wyclif  was  paralysed  for  two 
years  before  his  death,  and  he  died  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  1384,  on  the  sabbath,  on  St.  Sylvester's  day, 
on  the  eve  of  the  Circumcision  ;  and  in  the  same 
year,  that  is  on  the  day  of  the  Holy  Innocents,  as 
he  was  hearing  mass  in  his  church  at  Lyttyrwort,  at 
the  time  of  the  elevation  of  the  host,  he  fell  down, 
smitten  by  a  severe  (magna)  paralysis,  especially  in 
the  tongue,  so  that  neither  then  nor  afterwards  could 
he  speak,  to  the  moment  of  his  death.  He  spoke 
indeed  on  going  into  his  church,  but  being  struck  by 
paralysis  on  the  same  day  he  could  not  speak,  nor 
did  he  ever  speak  again. 

"  John  Horn,  a  priest  of  eighty  years,  who  was  a 


336  '  John  Wyclif.  [1383-1384 

parochial  priest  with  Wyclyff  for  two  years  up  to 
the  day  of  Wyclyff's  death,  told  me  this,  and  con- 
firmed it  with  an  oath,  saying :  '  As  I  must  answer 
before  God,  I  know  these  statements  to  be  true,  and, 
as  I  witnessed,  so  have  I  given  my  evidence.' 

"The  said  John  Horn  related  this,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  1441,  to  me  Doctor  Gascoigne." 

It  seems  to  be  a  pious  act,  even  if  it  be  no  more 
than  that,  to  accept  the  statement  of  the  old  Lollard 
priest,  which  Netter  of  Walden — who  might  have 
seen  both  Horn  and  Gascoigne — included  in  his 
Fasciculi  Zizaniorum.  The  picture  that  rises  before 
us  as  we  read  these  simple  words  may  appropriately 
close  the  record  of  this  half-obliterated,  never-to-be 
forgotten  life.  Let  us  leave  him  so,  the  protagonist 
of  the  English  Reformation,  dying  almost  alone  and 
forsaken,  who  had  been  the  friend  of  princes  and  the 
withstander  of  popes  ;  passing  mutely  from  a  world 
in  which  his  voice  had  re-asserted  the  highest  of 
human  philosophies,  and  glowing  like  a  star  in  the 
darkness  with  the  fire  of  a  yet  unrisen  sun. 


LUTTERWORTH   CHURCH-INTERIOR. 

PARTLY  CONTEMPORANEOUS  WITH  WYCLIF  J    SHOWING  AN  ANCIENT  FRESCO  OF  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

THE   WORK   THAT   LIVED. 

HE  story  of  Wyclif  s  life  would 
not  be  complete  if  it  did  not 
take  into  account  the  effect 
of  his  work  on  those  who 
came  after  him,  and  the 
strength  of  the  links  with 
which  he  bound  himself  to 
posterity.  We  have  seen  how 
he  was  allied  in  his  intellect- 
ual origin  to  the  Schoolmen  and  the  earlier  Fathers 
of  the  Church ;  it  is  right  that  we  should  ask  our- 
selves what  was  the  measure  of  the  return  which  he 
made  to  humanity  for  the  influences  under  which 
he  came  to  maturity.  We  have  watched  him,  in  the 
spring-time  of  the  Modern  Ages,  sowing  the  seed  of 
a  new  faith  and  a  new  devotion,  whereof  he  must 
have  seen  for  himself,  before  he  died,  the  first  green 
blades  of  a  harvest  that  was  to  cover  the  land.  Yet 
it  is  certain  that  the  history  of  the  Anglican  Refor- 
M  337 


32>8  John  Wyclif. 


mation  has  often  been  told  with  less  than  adequate 
reference  to  the  ideas  and  work  of  Wyclif,  and  to 
the  first  of  that  historic  series  of  religious  movements 
in  Oxford  which,  perhaps  once  in  every  century,  have 
pricked  the  conscience  and  remodelled  the  creed  of 
England. 

It  may  help  us  to  form  our  final  estimate  of  the 
man  whose  career  we  have  been  following,  to  gauge 
his  strength  and  to  understand  his  dynamic  force,  if 
we  place  ourselves  for  a  moment  at  a  Continental 
and  Roman  point  of  view,  and  look  at  Wyclif  as  he 
is  regarded  to-day  by  some  of  the  more  learned,  mod- 
erate, and  perhaps  unprejudiced  writers  of  the  Church 
of  Rome. 

"  The  History  of  the  Popes,"  by  Prof.  Ludwig  Pas- 
tor, which  is  recommended  in  a  special  brief  by 
Leo  XIII.,  and  has  been  translated  into  English  by 
Mr.  Antrobus,  a  member  of  the  Brompton  Oratory,  is 
a  work  of  great  research,  containing  much  that  is  new 
to  the  historical  student ;  and  it  is  so  far  impartial 
that  it  frankly  condemns  many  of  the  personal  acts 
of  Gregory  XI.,  and  his  successors  at  Rome,  espe- 
cially during  the  Papal  Schism.  The  German  his- 
torian reflects  the  settled  opinion  of  Roman  Catholic 
writers  when  he  says  that  "  the  errors  of  the  Apocalyp- 
tics  and  the  Waldenses,  of  Marsiglio,  Ockham,  and 
others,  were  all  concentrated  in  Wyclif  s  sect."  John 
Huss,  he  says  again,  "  was  not  merely  much  influ- 
enced, but  absolutely  dominated  by  these  ideas. 
Recent  investigations  have  furnished  incontestable 
evidence  that,  in  the  matter  of  doctrine,  Huss  owed 
everything  to  Wyclif." 


The  Work  That  Lived.  339 

We  have  seen  how  it  happened  that  the  preachers 
and  scholars  of  Bohemia  learned  and  adopted  the 
views  of  the  English  Reformer,  and  how  the  torch  of 
free  inquiry  was  passed  over  from  the  hands  of  Ox- 
ford to  those  of  Prague.  History  is  clear  enough 
about  the  succession  of  ideas  from  Wyclif  onward, 
but  it  would  be  difficult  to  show  the  descent  of  the 
scholastic  and  Wycliffite  innovations  from  the  Albi- 
gensian  heresies,  except  on  the  principle  of  post  hoc 
ergo  propter  hoc.  If  the  conclusions  of  Wyclif  in- 
volved all  those  of  the  Vaudois,  why  not  also  those 
of  the  Arian  Visigoths,  and  all  the  errors  which  had 
at  any  time  germinated  in  that  hotbed  of  religious 
crudities,  the  land  of  Languedoc?  If  the  facts  of 
transference  between  England  and  the  continent  had 
been  the  converse  of  what  we  know  them  to  have 
been,  and  if  Wyclif  had  taken  his  ideas  from  Bohe- 
mia, instead  of  giving  his  ideas  to  Bohemia,  there 
would  have  been  more  ground  for  this  theory  of 
Waldensian  origin.  Unquestionably  the  Walden- 
sian  ideas  were  not  obliterated  by  the  Inquisition 
of  Dominic  and  the  crusade  of  Innocent  III.,  but 
spread  themselves  to  the  eastward  in  Bavaria  and 
Austria,  and  were  found  re-asserting  themselves 
with  inextinguishable  energy  throughout  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries.  Prof.  Pastor  him- 
self, referring  to  the  disastrous  time  of  the  great 
Schism,  says :  "  It  was  not  only  in  Southern  Ger- 
many and  the  Rhine  country,  the  two  centres  of 
Mediaeval  heresy,  that  a  great  proportion  of  the 
population  had  embraced  the  Waldensian  doctrine  ; 
it  had  also  made  its  way  into  the  north  and  the 


34-0  John  Wyclif. 


furthest  east  of  the  empire.  Waldensian  congrega- 
tions were  to  be  found  in  Thuringia,  the  March  of 
Brandenberg,  Bohemia,  Moravia,  Silesia,  Pomerania, 
Prussia,  and  Poland." 

There  is  no  inducement  to  deny  that  some  of  the 
ideas  of  Pierre  de  Vaud,  like  some  of  the  ideas  of 
Marsiglio  and  Ockham,  were  contributory  to  the  body 
of  independent  thought  into  which  Wyclif  would  be 
initiated  at  Oxford  in  his  early  manhood.  We  have 
seen  that  Archbishop  Langham  had  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  remonstrate  with  the  holders  of  unsound 
doctrine  at  the  University  when  Wyclif  was  not  much 
over  forty-five  years  of  age,  and  that  this  doctrine 
was  by  no  means  on  all  points  identical  with  the  con- 
clusions taught  by  Wyclif  ten  or  twelve  years  later. 
How  much  (if  anything)  these  earlier  divagations 
owed  to  the  Waldensians  it  is  impossible  to  say,  for 
the  inquiry  into  their  character  has  not  been  worked 
out  with  sufficient  detail.  If  the  censors  who  are 
bound  to  begin  by  regarding  Wyclif  as  a  heretic,  in- 
stead of  a  restorer  of  truths  which  had  previously 
been  obscured,  mean  no  more  than  that  some  things 
which  he  taught  had  been  held  on  the  Continent 
before  he  was  born,  we  can  readily  agree  with  them. 

The  point  is  important,  because  there  are  some 
who  have  attempted  to  make  Wyclif  responsible  for 
all  the  acts  committed  by  Protestant  combatants  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  with  about  as  much  reason  as 
is  displayed  in  the  charge  that  he  fomented  the  revolt 
of  the  peasants  in  England.  The  Czechs  and  the 
Germans  must  be  held  responsible  for  their  own 
religious  wars ;  and   assuredly  there    is    enough    to 


The  Work  That  Lived,  341 

account  for  the  fact  and  for  the  bitterness  of  these 
wars  without  attributing  them  in  any  measure  to  the 
imported  seditions  of  the  Oxford  professor.  Wyclif 
did  not  even  seduce  the  people  of  Bohemia  and 
Germany  from  their  spiritual  obedience  and  ortho- 
doxy. They  were  Waldensians  or  Beghards  before 
they  had  heard  his  name.  They  were  heretics,  and 
well  on  the  way  to  being  rebels,  before  the  Church 
of  Rome  began  to  turn  against  herself  the  fatal 
weapon  of  her  own  corruption.  "  Too  little  atten- 
tion," to  cite  Professor  Pastor  once  more,  "  has 
hitherto  been  bestowed  on  the  revolutionary  spirit 
of  hatred  of  the  Church  and  the  clergy,  which  had 
taken  hold  of  the  masses  in  different  parts  of 
Germany.  Together  with  the  revolt  against  the 
Church,  a  social  revolution  was  openly  advocated. 
A  chronicler,  writing  at  Mayence  in  the  year  1401, 
declared  that  the  cry  of  '  Death  to  the  Priests/  which 
had  long  been  whispered  in  secret,  was  now  the 
watchword  of  the  day." 

It  is  evident  that,  both  on  the  Continent  and  in 
England,  these  two  revolutions  were  proceeding  side 
by  side,  and  that,  although  they  assisted  each  other, 
they' were  due  to  different  predisposing  causes.  That 
they  should  have  been  confounded  together  by  the 
authorities  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries 
was  no  more  than  natural  ;  and  it  would  have  been 
strange  if  the  champions  of  orthodoxy  had  not 
availed  themselves  of  every  opportunity  of  impressing 
upon  temporal  rulers  and  magnates  that  their  inter- 
ests were  attacked  by  the  teachers  of  heresy.  The 
papal  legates  in  the  fifteenth  century,  adopting  the 


342  John  Wyclif. 


language  of  popes  and  cardinals,  invariably  preached 
the  extermination  of  heretics  on  the  ground  that 
they  undermined  all  authority,  that  they  would  rob 
not  merely  the  Church  but  also  the  Kings  and  the 
nobles,  that  they  encouraged  the  refusal  of  taxes  and 
other  dues  to  rulers  who  could  not  stand  a  test  of 
morality,  and  that  their  doctrines  would  soon  reduce 
the  wealthy  to  beggary  and  the  State  to  anarchy.  If 
there  had  not  been  at  the  same  time  an  internecine 
war  of  pope  against  pope,  bishop  against  bishop,  and 
priest  against  priest,  this  dead  set  against  the  heretics 
in  every  country  would  have  been  far  more  effectual. 
As  it  was,  the  rulers  of  the  earth  were  filled  with 
panic,  and  the  persistence  of  the  new  ideas  was  main- 
tained in  spite  of  every  effort  to  stamp  them  out. 

Historians  of  the  Roman  Church  have  recognised 
the  magnitude  of  the  disaster  which  fell  upon  Chris- 
tendom at  the  time  of  the  Schism,  though  perhaps 
they  have  not  always  seen  it  in  its  true  proportions. 
The  demoralisation  consequent  on  the  "  Babylonian 
Captivity,"  and  on  the  return  of  Gregory  to  Rome, 
contributed  not  a  little,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the 
immunity  of  Wyclif,  and  enabled  him  to  put  forth 
his  plea  for  reform,  from  his  vantage-ground  of 
Oxford,  with  an  authority  and  a  deliberation  which 
he  could  not  otherwise  have  hoped  for.  If  Rome 
had  been  free  and  unfettered,  it  is  urged  by  her 
historians,  she  would  have  nipped  such  heresy  as 
Wyclif  s  in  the  bud  ;  the  tide  of  "  rationalism  "  might 
have  been  completely  turned,  and  the  unity  of  the 
Church  might  never  have  been  broken.  No  doubt 
there  would  have  been  a  notable  difference  in  the 


The  Work  That  Lived.  343 

Christian  world  if  Pope  Boniface  had  never  given 
himself  away  in  his  quarrel  with  Philip  of  France; 
if  the  captive  popes  at  Avignon  had  had  the  courage 
to  confine  themselves  to  the  spiritual  sphere,  and  to 
abandon  their  secular  ambitions  ;  if  Gregory  had  not 
hurried  back  to  the  seething  intrigues  of  Rome, 
against  the  judgment  of  his  cardinals,  and  under  the 
patronage  of  the  well-meaning  but  irresponsible  nun, 
Catherine  of  Siena.  The  unity  of  the  Church  might 
indeed  have  been  preserved  ;  and  if  we  could  suppose 
it  probable,  or  even  possible,  that  this  might  have 
been  done  by  a  spontaneous  reform  of  abuses  from 
within — by  the  expulsion  of  strained  dogma  and 
depraved  morals  without  forcing  saintly  men  like  John 
Wyclif  into  the  position  of  heretics — it  is  manifest 
how  great  a  disaster  the  acknowledged  guardians  of 
the  Church  would  have  avoided. 

In  any  exhaustive  history  of  the  English  people 
and  the  Anglican  Church  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries,  it  would  be  necessary  to  bring  to 
the  front  every  incident  and  detail  bearing  upon  the 
relations  of  the  Church  and  the  people,  to  study 
every  indication  of  popular  enthusiasm  or  prelatical 
tyranny,  and  to  develop  anew  every  fading  feature 
of  a  deeply  interesting  picture.  The  work  would  be 
well  worth  doing,  and  to  do  it  thoroughly  would 
compensate  the  labour  of  a  lifetime.  Here  it  is  not 
possible  to  go  beyond  some  further  suggestion  of  the 
magnitude,  importance,  and  permanence  of  Wyclif's 
achievement.  He  had  not  only  embodied  and  vocal- 
ised the  aspirations  for  reform  which  he  found  at 
Oxford   in  his  early  days :  he  had  infused  into  the 


344  John  Wyclif. 


movement  so  much  of  new  energy  and  virility  that 
the  Reformation  in  England  was  virtually  effected 
at  the  moment  of  his  death,  and  there  was  nothing 
to  come  but  the  outward  and  political  manifestations 
of  its  completeness.  Lollardy,  in  fact,  was  Protes- 
tantism in  all  its  essential  features — predestinarianism, 
constructive  pantheism,  as  its  ecclesiastical  censors 
are  wont  to  complain, — but  in  any  case  the  Protes- 
tantism which  won  for  England  the  open  Bible  and 
the  prayer-book,  which  overthrew  the  monasteries, 
the  Orders,  the  Roman  obedience,  and  the  mass.  It 
was  not  Cranmer,  nor  Cromwell,  nor  Henry  VIII. 
and  his  two  Protestant  children,  who  banished  papal 
authority  from  the  Anglican  Church.  They  were  the 
accidents,  or  at  most  the  instruments  of  a  victory 
already  accomplished.  For  the  true  moment  of 
victory,  and  for  the  effective  Reformer,  we  must 
look  back  to  the  fourteenth  century. 

The  history  of  England  between  the  reigns  of 
Richard  II.  and  Henry  VIII.  seems  to  be  more  fully 
dominated  than  historians  have  generally  admitted 
by  the  great  forces  of  religious,  moral,  and  social 
upheaval  which  had  come  to  maturity  in  the  lifetime 
of  Wyclif.  The  outcome  of  the  religious  upheaval 
was  Lollardy.  The  effect  of  the  moral  upheaval  was 
an  earnest,  evangelical  spirit,  a  somewhat  stern  and 
harsh  puritanism,  a  more  pure  and  consequently 
more  refined  conduct  on  the  part,  especially,  of  the 
poorer  clergy  and  their  congregations.  By  the  social 
upheaval  there  was  created  in  England,  between  the 
Plantagenet  and  Tudor  epochs,  nothing  less  than  the 
English  people — a  people  emancipated,  dignified  by 


The  Work  That  Lived.  345 

independent  industry,  annealed  by  common  interests 
and  resolutions,  energetic,  honest,  and  self-respect- 
ing. These  were  the  operative  forces  which  in 
fact  produced  the  people  of  England  as  we  know 
them  to-day,  which  worked  with  silent  and  subtle 
machinery  amidst  the  transient  din  and  chaos  of  the 
fifteenth  century. 

We  are  apt  to  be  misled  by  such  terms  as  the 
"  Wars  of  the  Roses,"  the  "  Lancastrian  and  York- 
ist parties,"  the  "  Lollards "  described  as  a  mere 
persecuted  sect,  and  "  Jack  Cade's  rebellion."  We 
have  had,  perhaps,  too  much  of  the  mere  story  of 
White  Rose  and  Red  Rose,  and  too  little  of  the 
history  which  explains  who  they  were  that  fought, 
and  why  they  fought,  and  what  depended  on  the 
issue  of  each  battle.  In  this  sense,  the  history  of 
the  English  people  may  almost  be  said  to  have  been 
begun  by  Green.  Up  to  his  time  it  had  been  a 
sealed  book  ;  the  seals  are  broken,  but  even  now  the 
pages  are  no  more  than  half  exposed.  Green  shows 
us  how,  from  the  Peasants'  Revolt,  from  the  perse- 
cution of  Courtenay  and  the  death  of  Wyclif,  Lollardy 
was  dispersed  but  not  destroyed — how,  stricken  down 
and  left  for  dead  by  the  authorities,  the  spirit  of 
religious  independence  revived  amongst  its  friends 
and  permeated  many  classes  of  the  population.  "All 
the  religious  and  social  discontent  of  the  time  floated 
instinctively  to  this  new  centre ;  the  socialist  dreams 
of  the  peasantry,  the  new  and  keener  spirit  of  per- 
sonal morality,  the  hatred  of  the  friars,  the  jealousy 
of  the  great  lords  towards  the  prelacy,  the  fanaticism 
of  the  Puritan   zealot,  were  blended  together  in  a 


346  John  Wyclif. 


common  hostility  to  the  Church,  and  a  common 
resolve  to  substitute  personal  religion  for  its  dogmatic 
and  ecclesiastical  system."  The  reaction  of  this 
spirit  on  the  political  movements  of  the  day  followed 
as  a  matter  of  course.  "  Nobles,  like  the  Earl  of 
Salisbury,  and  at  a  later  time  Sir  John  Oldcastle, 
placed  themselves  openly  at  the  head  of  the  cause, 
and  threw  open  their  gates  as  a  refuge  for  its  mission- 
aries. London  in  its  hatred  of  the  clergy  was  fiercely 
Lollard.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  clergy  attempted  to 
stifle  the  new  movement  by  their  old  weapon  of 
persecution.  The  jealousy  entertained  by  the 
baronage  and  gentry  of  every  pretension  of  the 
Church  to  secular  power  foiled  its  efforts  to  make 
persecution  effective.  Powerless  as  the  efforts  of  the 
Church  were  for  purposes  of  repression,  they  were 
effective  in  arousing  the  temper  of  the  Lollards  into 
a  bitter  and  fanatical  hatred  of  their  persecutors. 
The  Lollard  teachers  directed  their  fiercest  invec- 
tives against  the  wealth  and  secularity  of  the  great 
Churchmen.  In  a  formal  petition  to  Parliament 
they  mingled  denunciations  of  the  riches  of  the 
clergy  with  an  open  profession  of  disbelief  in  tran- 
substantiation,  priesthood,  pilgrimages,  and  image 
worship,  and  a  demand,  which  illustrates  the  strange 
medley  of  opinions  which  jostled  together  in  the 
new  movement,  that  war  might  be  declared  un- 
christian." 

How  large  a  part  Wyclif  had  borne  in  the  assertion 
of  this  influence,  political  as  well  as  religious,  the 
reader  of  the  preceding  pages  will  be  in  a  position 
to  judge. 


The  Work  That  Lived.  347 

Lollardy  was,  in  fact,  the  keystone  of  the  arch 
whereon  the  newer  liberties  of  Englishmen  are  sup- 
ported. In  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  the  followers  of 
Wyclif  were  virtually  under  royal  protection  ;  they 
were  respectfully  listened  to  by  Parliament  and 
King ;  their  patron,  Salisbury,  was  potent  at  Court ; 
and  not  even  Courtenay  or  Arundel  was  able  to  take 
any  effective  measures  against  them.  For  a  time,  in 
spite  of  all  that  the  Church  could  do,  they  steadily 
increased  in  number  and  strength,  and  for  the  re- 
mainder of  the  fourteenth  century  they  enjoyed 
comparative  immunity.  But  the  instability  of  the 
King  ruined  both  himself  and  all  who  depended  on 
him.  Richard  had  thoroughly  alienated  the  Church. 
His  quarrel  with  and  banishment  of  Archbishop 
Arundel,  which  may  have  been  to  some  extent 
justified  by  the  intrigues  of  Arundel  and  his 
brother,  hastened  his  own  deposition  and  death. 
The  head  of  the  English  clergy  and  the  head  of  the 
House  of  Lancaster  were  exiles  at  the  same  moment, 
and  it  was  at  the  invitation  of  Arundel,  representing 
a  powerful  party  in  London,  that  the  son  of  John 
of  Gaunt  returned  to  England  and  usurped  the 
Crown.  Henry  IV.  never  forgot  how  much  he 
owed  to  the  Church  ;  and  indeed  the  three  Lancas- 
trian Kings  continued  for  the  next  sixty  years  to 
rely  upon  the  clergy  and  to  play  into  their  hands. 

The  persecution  of  the  Lollards  now  began  in 
earnest,  and  Arundel  devoted  the  rest  of  his  life  to 
an  unwearying  effort  to  destroy  both  them  and  their 
teaching.  In  Oxford  the  memory  of  Wyclif  was 
still  affectionately  and  courageously  preserved.    The 


348  John  Wyclif. 


University,  which  had  successfully  resisted  the 
authority  of  the  Bishops  of  Lincoln,  afterwards  con- 
tested the  claims  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury 
to  exercise  a  right  of  visitation.  Arundel,  with 
shrewd  judgment  and  calculation,  had  turned  his 
attention  to  Oxford  from  the  beginning  of  his  pri- 
macy, probably  considering  that  the  best  way  to 
deal  with  a  flood  is  to  cut  off  the  springs  that  feed 
it.  It  was  ostensibly  on  the  solicitation  of  a  strong 
party  in  the  faculties  of  law  and  divinity  that  he 
announced  his  intention  to  come  down  and  assert 
his  right  in  1397 ;  but  he  was  foiled  by  the  produc- 
tion of  a  bull  from  Boniface  IX.,  declaring  the  Uni- 
versity exempt.  It  is  characteristic  of  that  age  of 
lame  and  ineffectual  resolutions,  that  the  popes 
themselves  were  found  impeding  the  efforts  of  their 
legates  to  crush  out  a  most  formidable  heresy — for 
it  is  evident  that  there  was  an  intimate  relation 
between  the  prosecution  of  the  Oxford  Wycliffites 
and  the  question  of  archiepiscopal  visitation.  Offi- 
cious appeals  on  both  points  reached  Arundel  simul- 
taneously, and  he  went  so  far  as  to  declare,  in  a 
letter  to  the  Chancellor,  that  he  had  been  informed 
"that  almost  the  whole  University  was  affected  by 
heretical  pravity." 

The  phrase  seems  to  have  stuck  in  the  gizzard  of 
the  Chancellor  and  Regents,  for  we  find  it  again  in  a 
letter  under  the  University  seal,  apparently  addressed 
to  the  Archbishop  some  time  later.  This  document 
bears  witness  to  the  manner  in  which  Wyclif's  repute 
was  still  cherished  by  the  men  who  personally 
remembered  him.  "  His  conversation  from  his  youth 


The  Work  That  Lived.  349 

to  his  death  was  so  praiseworthy  and  honest  in  the 
University  that  he  never  gave  any  offence,  nor  was 
he  aspersed  with  any  mark  of  infamy  or  sinister 
suspicion  ;  but  in  answering,  reading,  preaching,  and 
determining,  he  behaved  himself  laudably,  as  a  val- 
iant champion  of  the  truth,  and  catholicly  vanquished 
by  sentences  of  Holy  Scripture  all  such  as  by  their 
wilful  beggary  blasphemed  the  religion  of  Christ. 
This  doctor  was  not  convicted  of  heretical  pravity, 
or  by  our  prelates  delivered  to  be  burned  after  his 
burial.  For  God  forbid  that  our  prelates  should 
have  condemned  a  man  of  so  great  probity  for  a 
heretic,  who  had  not  his  equal  in  all  the  University, 
in  his  writings  of  logic,  philosophy,  divinity,  morality, 
and  the  speculative  sciences."  * 

Certainly  there  is  more  evidence  of  courage  in  this 
letter  than  is  apparent  in  the  attitude  of  some  of 
the  Wycliffites  in  1382  and  the  following  years.  Not 
long  afterwards,  in  1407,  Arundel  held  a  Provincial 
Synod  at  Oxford,  having  possibly  found  a  more 
amenable  Chancellor — for  the  dispute  concerning 
his  right  of  visitation  was  not  yet  adjusted.  It  was 
ordered  on  the  authority  of  the  Church  that  no 
works  of  Wyclif  should  be  used  in  the  universities, 
and  that  all  works  written  in  Wyclif 's  lifetime  should 
pass  under  the  censorship  of  the  universities  and  the 
Archbishop  before  they  were  used  in  the  schools. 
Apparently  Oxford  faced  the  Primate  without  flinch- 
ing, until  the  accession  of  Pope  John  XXIII.  in  1410. 
John  sent  Arundel  a  bull  reversing  that  of  Boniface 
in  the  matter  of  visitations  ;  and  it  was  about  the 

*  The  passage  is  printed  as  quoted  by  Lewis. 


350  John  Wyclif. 


same  time  that  the  Archbishop  prevailed  on  Congre- 
gation to  nominate  a  committee  of  twelve  doctors  in 
order  to  draw  up  a  list  of  Wyclif's  errors.  The  will 
was  everything  in  a  search  of  this  kind,  and  out  of 
fourteen  works  examined — and  subsequently  burnt 
at  Carfax — the  committee  were  fortunate  enough 
to  light  upon  two  hundred  and  sixty-seven  instances 
of  false  teaching. 

By  the  time  that  the  Council  of  Constance  met  in 
1414  to  put  an  end  to  the  scandal  of  the  Schism,  to 
burn  John  Huss,  and  to  lay  a  solemn  curse  on  the 
memory  of  Wyclif,  somebody  had  increased  this 
catalogue  of  errors  to  more  than  three  hundred. 
The  formal  record  of  the  Council  in  regard  to  the 
condemnation  of  Wyclif  is  as  follows: 

"  By  the  authority  of  the  sentence  and  decree  of 
the  Roman  Council,  and  of  the  mandate  of  the 
apostolic  see,  the  Council  proceeded  with  the  con- 
demnation of  John  Wyclif  and  his  memory:  and, 
having  published  injunctions  to  cite  all  who  would 
defend  the  said  Wyclif  or  his  memory,  and  nobody 
appearing  for  that  purpose,  and  having  moreover 
examined  witnesses  of  the  impenitence  and  final 
obstinacy  of  the  said  Wyclif,  and  the  things  being 
proved  by  evident  signs  attested  by  lawful  witnesses, 
the  holy  Synod  did  declare  and  define  the  said  John 
Wyclif  to  have  been  a  notorious  heretic,  and  to  have 
died  obstinate  in  heresy,  excommunicating  him  and 
condemning  his  memory ;  and  did  decree  that  his 
body  and  bones,  if  they  could  be  distinguished  from 
those  of  the  faithful,  should  be  disinterred,  or  dug 
out  of  the  ground,  and  cast  at  a  distance  from  the 
sepulchre  of  the  church." 


The  Work  That  Lived,  351 

Twelve  years  later,  Pope  Martin  found  that  the 
decree  of  the  Council  had  not  been  obeyed  m  Eng- 
land. He  wrote  an  urgent  letter  on  the  subject  to 
Richard  Flemmyng,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  whom1  we 
have  encountered  already  as  one  of  the  younger  dis- 
ciples of  Wyclif,  and  who  in  1407  was  still  some- 
thing of  a  Wycliffite,  though  he  presently  began  to 
receive  preferment.  Flemmyng,  in  his  old  age,  was 
full  of  zeal  for  orthodoxy,  and  brought  himself  to  the 
point  of  desecrating  his  old  master's  grave  and  burn- 
ing his  bones. 

Orthodoxy  would  willingly  have  stamped  out 
everything  that  Wyclif  wrote,  with  a  great  deal  more 
into  the  bargain.  Even  Caxton,  seventy  or  eighty 
years  after  the  date  of  Arundel's  Synod  at  Oxford, 
never  ventured  to  touch  a  Wyclif  manuscript. 
Indeed  there  are  comparatively  few  religious  works 
amongst  the  fourscore  printed  books  attributed  to 
him  and  his  personal  assistants.  A  Latin  psalter 
appears  to  be  the  only  complete  book  of  the  text 
of  Scripture  which  found  its  way  into  print  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  though  there  are  books  of  devo- 
tion, collections  of  papal  indulgences,  and  a  few 
orthodox  sermons,  which  bear  witness  to  the  fact 
that  the  ignoring  of  Wyclif  was  not  due  to  any  secu- 
lar exclusiveness  amongst  the  early  printers. 

The  effort  to  suppress  the  writings  of  Wyclif  was 
not  confined  to  England.  Two  years  after  the 
adoption  of  Arundel's  constitutions  the  Pope  ap- 
pointed a  Conference  of  learned  men  from  the  uni- 
versities of  Bonn,  Paris,  and  Oxford  to  discuss  the 
expediency  of  burning  those  heretical  writings.  For- 
tunately the  hint  from  Rome  was  not  taken ;  and  it 


352  John  Wyclif, 


must  be  remembered  that  the  authority  of  Rome  was 
still  impaired  by  the  Papal  Schism.  The  Conference 
was  candid  enough  to  say  that  there  were  "  many 
true,  good,  and  useful  things  "  in  Wyclif,  of  which  the 
students  in  the  schools  ought  not  to  be  deprived. 
The  universities  were  not  heroic  enough — or  were 
perhaps  too  heroic — for  the  popes  and  archbishops ; 
and  in  fact  it  is  to  them,  and  especially  to  the  Uni- 
versity of  Prague,  that  we  owe  the  preservation  of 
many  of  Wyclif's  works. 

The  statute  of  1401,  reviving  the  punishment  of 
the  stake  for  obstinate  heretics,  was  one  of  the  first 
acts  of  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.,  and  Arundel  had  at 
once  availed  himself  of  it  by  passing  censure  on  the 
Lollard  priest,  Sawtre,  and  handing  him  over  to  be 
dealt  with  by  the  secular  arm.  The  enactment  of 
this  statute  did  not  lead  to  many  burnings  in  Eng- 
land ;  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  conclude  that  it  had 
effected  the  purpose  of  those  who  obtained  it.  No 
doubt  to  some  extent  it  would  drive  heresy  beneath 
the  surface,  and  close  the  mouths  of  the  wilder  sort 
of  heretics,  whose  noise  had  been  in  excess  of  their 
courage.  But  Lollardy  remained  an  open  profession, 
and  if  the  spirit  of  the  age  had  allowed  many  scan- 
dals, such  as  those  exhibited  by  the  deaths  of  Sawtre, 
Badby,  and  Lord  Cobham,*  the  bishops  and  judges 
would  certainly  not  have  lacked  victims  amongst  the 
followers  of  Wyclif,  who  courted  the  utmost  terrors 


*  Cobham  was  a  personal  and  most  devoted  follower  of  Wyclif. 
"  Before  God  and  man,"  he  said  on  his  trial  for  heresy,  "  I  profess 
solemnly  here  that  I  never  abstained  from  sin  until  I  knew  Wyclif, 
whom  ye  so  much  disdain." 


The  Work  That  Lived.  353 

of  the  law.  It  was  an  age  in  which  many  parts  of 
England  were  involved  in  almost  constant  civil  war. 
The  Lancastrians  and  the  Church  had  made  common 
cause,  and  their  enemies  combined  against  them  with 
arms  in  their  hands.  In  all  the  revolts  that  marked 
the  reign  of  Henry  IV.,  the  Lollard's  everywhere  took 
an  active  and  a  prominent  part.  The  bitter  hostility 
of  the  clergy  towards  the  men  whose  very  existence 
was  a  reproach  against  them  was  well  illustrated  by 
the  conduct  of  some  of  the  highest  authorities  of  the 
Church  and  religious  Orders,  when  they  heard  that 
Salisbury  had  been  slain  in  battle.  "  His  gory  head 
was  welcomed  into  London  by  a  procession  of  abbots 
and  bishops,  who  went  out  singing  psalms  of  thanks- 
giving to  meet  it  "  ;  and  amongst  these  exulting  pro- 
fessors of  Christianity  there  were  probably  some  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  barefoot  litany  of  1382,  which 
celebrated  the  condemnation  of  Wyclif. 

It  was  war  to  the  knife  between  the  Lancastrians 
and  the  Lollards — so  completely  had  the  earlier  tra- 
ditions of  the  first  Duke  of  Lancaster  been  aban- 
doned by  his  family.  Parliament  was  still  subject  to 
the  violent  and  rapid  fluctuations  which  we  have 
already  observed  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  and 
Richard.  If  it  was  by  no  means  always  on  the  side 
of  the  clergy,  still  it  was  nearly  always  prejudiced 
against  the  Lollards  as  a  fighting  party.  The  survival 
of  pure  Wyclifiism  was  conspicuous  enough  in  the 
repeated  demands  made  by  the  House  of  Commons 
for  the  appropriation  of  Church  property  to  secular 
and  popular  uses.  Demands  to  this  effect  were 
made  by  the  Lack-Learning  Parliament  in  1404,  by 


354  John  Wyclif. 


the  Parliament  of  1410,  and  at  least  once  thereafter. 
Shakspeare  may  be  cited  in  this  connection,  not  in- 
deed as  an  historical  authority,  but  for  an  illustration 
of  the  well-known  facts.  In  the  opening  lines  of 
Henry  the  Fifth,  Chicheley  says  to  his  brother 
prelate : 

"  My  lord,  I  '11  tell  you,  that  self  bill  is  urg'd 
Which  in  the  eleventh  year  of  the  last  king's  reign 
Was  like,  and  had  indeed  against  us  pass'd 
But  that  the  scambling  and  unquiet  time 
Did  push  it  out  of  further  question.     .     .     . 
For  all  the  temporal  lands  which  men  devout 
By  testament  have  given  to  the  Church 
Would  they  strip  from  us  ;  being  valued  thus — 
As  much  as  would  maintain,  to  the  king's  honour, 
Full  fifteen  earls,  and  fifteen  hundred  knights, 
Six  thousand  and  two  hundred  good  esquires ; 
And,  to  relief  of  lazars  and  weak  age, 
Of  indigent  faint  souls,  past  corporal  toil, 
A  hundred  almshouses,  right  well  supplied  ; 
And  to  the  coffers  of  the  king  beside, 
A  thousand  pounds  by  the  year.     Thus  runs  the  bill. 
Ely.  This  would  drink  deep. 
Canterbury.  'T  would  drink  the  cup  and  all." 

On  the  whole,  the  Parliaments  of  the  Henrys  were 
decidedly  inimical  to  the  men  whom  Englishmen 
had  been  taught  to  hold  responsible  for  the  rebellion 
of  1 38 1,  and  who  were  certainly  disaffected  towards 
King  and  Church.  On  the  meeting  of  the  second 
Parliament  of  Henry  V.,  the  Lollards  were  accused 
of  disturbing  the  peace  of  the  realm,  and  attempting 
to  subvert  the  faith,  and  to  destroy  the  King  and  the 
law  of  the  land.  An  Act  was  subsequently  passed 
which  provided  that  all  officers  on  their  admission 


"M 

4 .  f 

■ 

few 

y< 

Kv»  '*?* >wl  S-  i  B 

B       -  m   M 

.  JB 

"5  J  fife  [1 

ARCHBISHOP  CHICHELEY,   FOUNDER  OF  ALL   SOULS. 
1414-43. 

BY  J.    FABER. 


The  Work  That  Lived.  355 

should  take  an  oath  to  destroy  Lollardy,  and  to 
assist  the  bishops  therein  ;  that  "  heretics  convict  " 
should  forfeit  their  lands,  goods,  and  chattels ;  that 
the  justices  should  have  power  to  inquire  into 
offences  against  the  Act,  and  to  issue  a  capias — with 
other  stringent  provisions  of  the  same  kind. 

Archbishop  Chicheley,  who  succeeded  Arundel  in 
1414,  did  his  best  to  eclipse  the  zeal  and  fame  of  his 
predecessor.  In  1416  he  enjoined  all  his  suffragans 
and  archdeacons  in  the  province  of  Canterbury 
"  diligently  to  inquire  twice  every  year  after  persons 
suspected  of  heresy."  Wherever  heretics  were 
reported  to  dwell,  three  or  more  of  that  parish 
should  be  obliged  "  to  take  an  oath  that  they  would 
certify  in  writing  to  the  suffragans,  archdeacons,  or 
their  commissaries,  what  persons  were  heretics,  or 
kept  private  conventicles,  or  differed  in  life  and 
manners  from  the  common  conversation  of  the 
faithful,  or  asserted  heresies  or  errors,  or  had  any 
suspected  books  written  in  the  vulgar  English 
tongue,  or  received,  favoured,  or  were  conversant 
with  any  persons  suspected  of  error  or  heresies." 
The  diocesans,  upon  information  received,  were  to 
"  issue  out  process  against  the  accused  persons,  and 
if  they  did  not  deliver  them  over  to  the  secular 
court,  yet  they  should  commit  them  to  perpettial 
or  temporary  imprisonment,  as  the  nature  of  the 
cause  required,  at  least  until  the  sitting  of  the 
next  Convocation." 

This  device  of  the  Archbishop's  amounted,  clearly, 
to  nothing  short  of  a  petty  Inquisition  in  every 
parish,  and  the  words  in  italics  show  how  easily  it 


356  John  Wyclif. 


might  be  converted  into  an  instrument  of  the  most 
outrageous  tyranny  over  the  innermost  thoughts  and 
feelings.  There  we  have  another  instance  of  what 
has  so  frequently  been  displayed  in  the  history  of 
mankind  :  spiritual  authority,  pushed  to  a  logical 
extreme,  pronounces  its  final  edict  in  the  sentence, 
"  I  kill  you  because  I  do  not  like  you."  It  was  the 
jut)  eivai  of  Aristotle,  translated  into  an  Athanasian 
curse. 

Archbishop  Chicheley  has  been  roundly  accused  of 
instigating  Henry  V.  to  renew  the  war  with  France 
in  order  to  relieve  the  strain  at  home,  and  to  turn 
aside  the  danger  with  which  the  Church  was  menaced. 
Of  course  these  were  amongst  the  natural  effects  of 
the  war,  which  produced  another  "  scambling  and 
unquiet  time,"  and  did  much  to  postpone  the 
religious  and  other  evolutions  in  England,  already 
more  than   due. 

Though  the  evidence  becomes  fainter  as  we  ad- 
vance more  than  half  a  century  beyond  Wyclif's 
death,  yet  there  is  ample  proof  of  both  the  religious 
and  the  political  survival  of  Lollardy  in  England. 
It  may  be  true  that  we  do  not  hear  much  more  of 
the  term  in  the  pages  of  the  fifteenth-century  chron- 
icles ;  but,  unfortunately,  some  of  these  chronicles 
are  more  distinguished  for  what  they  omit  than  for 
what  they  include.  And,  after  all,  if  every  scrap  of 
direct  evidence  on  the  subject  had  been  brought 
together,  the  fact  would  remain  that  we  need  no 
proof  of  this  kind  to  assure  us  that  the  spirit  and 
conviction  of  the  Lollards,  having  once  taken  hold 
of  so  large  a  fraction  of  the  nation,  could  not  pos- 


The  Work  That  Lived,  357 

sibly  die  out  again.  The  love  of  truth  and  inde- 
pendence, the  hatred  of  religious  tyranny  and  the 
revolt  against  it,  would  not  be  suppressed  by  such  a 
feeble  reign  of  terror  as  the  Lancastrians,  the  schis- 
matic popes,  and  the  plethoric  English  clergy  were 
able  to  set  up  ;  nor  would  they  disappear  because  the 
country  was  plunged  for  another  generation  into  a 
wanton  and  disastrous  war. 

A  mighty  change  had  passed  over  the  nation 
between  1380  and  1450.  The  men  who  followed 
Cade  to  London,  the  soldiers  who  gathered  under 
the  banners  of  York,  Warwick,  and  Salisbury  (and 
who  in  the  course  of  the  civil  war  displayed  their 
hatred  of  the  prelacy  by  assassinating  several  bishops 
who  fell  into  their  hands),  were  sons  and  heirs  of  the 
Lollards  who  had  revolted  against  Henry  IV.  and 
Henry  V.  Whether  they  professed  to  be  Lollards 
or  not — and  some  of  them  professed  it — they  were 
one  with  their  fathers  in  revolting  against  the  Lan- 
castrian and  ecclesiastical  tyrannies,  against  the 
restrictions  of  liberty,  the  overbearing  of  the  nobles, 
and  the  persistent  aggressions  of  the  Church  and  the 
Crown.  No  doubt  they  revolted  blindly — but  it  was 
under  the  compulsion  of  a  blind  necessity,  and  with 
an  instinctive  faith  in  the  principles  which  they  had 
imbibed  in  their  youth. 

And  finally,  when  the  Tudors  sat  firmly  on  the 
throne  of  England,  when  Parliament  was  in  abey- 
ance, and  the  tyranny  of  the  monarch  had  become 
greater  than  ever,  was  it  merely  fortuitous  that  the 
papal  hierarchy  and  the  monasteries  should  have 
been  swept  away  whilst  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown 


358  John  Wyclif. 


was  steadily  increased  and  strengthened?  Surely 
not.  The  contract  made  in  1399  between  the  son 
of  Gaunt  and  the  representative  of  Rome  in  England 
was  perhaps  the  only  thing  which  could  at  that  time 
have  retained  the  Anglican  Church  within  the  Latin 
communion.  When  the  Lancastrians  had  gone,  the 
monarchy  sought  and  discovered  new  bonds  of  na- 
tional allegiance,  and  the  Church  was  no  longer  indis- 
pensable. Crown  and  Church,  henceforth,  could  not 
be  simultaneously  powerful,  and  the  monarch  sacri- 
ficed the  Church  in  order  to  purchase  the  loyalty 
and  obedience  of  the  people.  There  was  at  any  rate 
so  much  of  political  philosophy  under  the  policy 
of  Edward  IV.,  and  still  more  under  the  policy 
of  Henry  VIII.  and  his  counsellors — virtual  if  not 
expressed,  and  in  effect  if  not  in  deliberate  purpose. 
The  sum  of  the  whole  matter,  so  far  as  the  reader 
of  the  present  volume  is  specially  concerned  in  the 
historical  developments  of  the  fifteenth  century,  is 
this:  If  the  Roman  authority  in  England,  and  the 
English  hierarchy  as  representing  Rome,  had  been 
fatally  undermined  in  the  fourteenth  century — if, 
buttressed  up  by  the  Lancastrian  Kings,  the  prelati- 
cal  system  shook  to  its  fall  under  the  Tudors — if, 
when  the  political  moment  arrived,  the  nation  stood 
ready  for  the  change,  ready  and  eager  for  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  monks  and  the  rupture  with  Rome — all 
this  was  mainly  and  primarily  due  to  the  innovating 
spirit  of  the  Schoolmen,  and  above  all  to  the  life  and 
work  of  John  Wyclif.  He  sowed  the  seed  that  raised 
this  harvest  ;  he  spoke  the  hardy  words  that  grew 
into  counsels  of  courage  and   perfection  ;  he  spread 


The  Work  That  Lived,  359 

wide  the  pages  which,  in  the  awakened  conscience 
of  every  independent  Christian,  were  to  replace  the 
authority  of  fallible  men. 

In  a  word,  Wyclif  was  no  mere  forerunner  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation,  but  the  Reformer  in  chief. 
In  the  intellectual  domain,  in  the  field  of  ideas  and  of 
spiritual  activity,  he  originated  the  movement  which 
had  its  issue  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  Tudor 
monarchs  rode  but  did  not  raise  the  storm.  For  one 
reason  or  another  Wyclif  was  long  excluded  from  his 
proper  place  in  history  ;  but  the  nineteenth  century, 
bringing  together  for  the  first  time  all  the  main  con- 
temporary documents,  has  been  able  to  take  the  true 
bearings  of  the  epoch  of  religious  reform.  And  per- 
haps no  one  hereafter  will  attempt  to  explain  the 
conduct  of  Henry  VIII.,  of  Thomas  Cromwell,  and 
the  martyred  bishops,  withom^^beginning  his  story 
from  the  last  of  the  Schoolmen,  and  from  the  golden 
prime  of  the  University  of  Oxford. 


36° 


John  Wyclif. 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  EVENTS 


1 301 
to 

1353 


Facts  in  Wyclif's  Life 


1320.  Born  (at  Wy cliff e  or  Spes- 
well  ?)  Son  of  Roger  and 
Catherine  Wyclif. 


1335.  At   a    grammar    school   in 
Oxford"? 


r  Probably  heard  Ockham, 
Bradwardine,  and  Fitz- 
ralph  ;  and  read  Marsiglio 
and  Cesena.  Wyclif  speci- 
ally owns  his  obligations  to 
Augustine  and  Grosteste. 
According  to  James  he  was  a 
Doctor  of  Divinity  soon 
after  1355?? 

b  Beneficed  in  Oxford?(James). 


Kings  of 
England 


Edward  I. 


1307.  Edward  II. 


1327.  Edward  III, 


Archbishops  of 
Canterbury 


Winchelsey. 


13 13.  Reynolds. 


1327.  Simon 

Meopham. 

1333.  John  Strat- 
ford. 


1348.  John 

Ufford. 
Thomas 
Bradward- 
ine. 

!349.SimonIslip. 


1349- 


Chronology. 


36i 


CONNECTED  WITH  WYCLIF. 


Popes  of  Rome 


Boniface  VIII. 


1303.  Benedict  XI. 
[At  Avignon.] 
1305.  Clement  V. 


1316.  John  XXII. 


1334.  Benedict  XII. 


1342.  Clement  VI. 


:352.  Innocent  VI. 


Kings  of  France 


Philip  IV. 


13 14.  Louis  X. 
13T5.  John  I. 
1316.  Philip  V. 


1323.  Charles  IV. 


1328.  Philip  VI. 


1350.  John  II. 


Contemporary  Events 


1302. 


1303. 


1305. 


Arrest  of 
Boniface. 


Increasing  power  of  English  Par- 
liament. 
Bull  Unam  Sane  tarn. 

Dante. 
Petrarch. 
Boccaccio. 
Popes  at  Avignon. 
1307.  Statute  of  Provisors  (1). 
131 1.  Council   of  Vienne  :     Olivi 
condemned. 


1322.  Franciscan  Congregation  at 
Perugia  (for  evangelical  pov- 
erty). 

1324.  Defensor  Pacis  written. 

1328.  Lewis  of  Bavaria  at  Rome. 
Antipope  Peter. 

1333.  English  tribute  to  Rome  sus- 
pended. 


1338.  Scots  and  French  Wars. 
1340.  John  of  Gaunt  and  Chaucer 
born  ?  First  lay  Chancellor. 

1343.  Parliament    petitions    King 
against  Papal  provisions. 

1346.  Crecy. 

1347.  Rienzi's  Revolution. 


1349.  Worst     visitation     of     the 

Plague.     Flagellants   come 
to  the  front. 

1350.  Papal  Jubilee  :    lavish  gifts 

to  the  Church. 

135 1.  Statute  of  Provisors. 

1352.  Statutes  of  Labourers. 

1353.  Statute  of  Praemunire  (1). 


362 


John  Wyclif, 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  EVENTS 


A.D. 

Facts  in  Wyclif's  Life 

Kings  of 
England 

Archbishops  of 
Canterbury 

1354 

to 
1360 

1356.  Fellow  of  Merton  ? 

Fellow  of  Balliol  (date  unre- 
corded). 

Master  of  Balliol  (date  unre- 
corded). 

Lord  of  the  Manor  of  Wy- 
cliffe  (a  knight's  fee)  ? 

Edward  III. 

Simon  Islip. 

1361 
to 

1365 

1361.  Maintains  authority  of  Uni- 
versity against  the  Friars? 
Rector  of  Fillingham  (col- 
lege living). 

1363.  In     residence    at    Queen's. 
Presents    W.    Wycliffe    to 
family  living  of  Wycliffe  ? 

1365.  King's  Chaplain.     Probably 
begins  to  preach  in  London. 
Lectures  on  Divinity  at  Ox- 
ford. Writes  scholastic  works 
— De  Esse,  De  Compositions 
Hominis,  etc. 

Edward  III. 

1366 

to 

1370 

1366.  Called  upon  by  Parliament 
to  show  cause  against  pay- 
ing tribute  to  Rome :  De- 
terminatio  qucedam  de  Dom- 
inio. 

1368.  In  Oxford  again. 

1369.  Presents  H.  Hugate  of  Bal- 
liol   to   Wycliffe    rectory? 
Exchanges   Fillingham  for 
the  poorer  living  of  Lud- 
garshall. 

1370.  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

Edward  III. 

1366.  S.Langham 

1368.  W.  Whittle- 
sea. 

1371 

Personal    influence  of   Wyclif    at 
Court,  over  Princess  of  Wales, 
Lancaster,  Lord  Latimer,  Alice 
Perrers,  etc.  Also  over  Sir  John 
Oldcastle,  Lord   Berkeley  and 
many  others. 

Edward  III. 

Chronology. 


363 


CONNECTED  WITH  WYCLIF. 


Popes 

Kings  of  France 

CONTEMPORARV   EVENTS 

Innocent  VI. 

John  II. 

1354.  Turks  cross  the  Hellespont. 

1356.  Poitiers. 

1357.  Edward  refuses  tribute  to  the 

Pope.      Fitzralph     attacks 
Franciscans  at  Rome.  Ock- 
ham  dies. 

1358.  Papal     envoys    executed   in 

England. 
1360.  Treaty  of  Bre'tigny. 

1362.  Urban  V. 

1364.  Charles  V. 

1362.  Jubilee    of    Edward's    life. 
English   language   adopted 
in  the  courts. 

1365.  Suits  in  Papal  court  forbid- 
den again. 

1366.  Parliament  refuses  tribute  to 

Pope.    Wykeham  Bishop  of 
Winchester. 

1367.  Wykeham     Chancellor     of 

England. 

1369.  Portsmouth    burnt     by    the 

French. 

1370.  Sack  of  Limoges. 

1371.  Gregory  XI. 

1371.  Removal  of  ecclesiastics  from 
offices  of  state  on  petition  of 
Commons.       Heavier  taxa- 
tion  of  the  Church.     Re- 
verses in  French  and  Span- 
ish Wars. 

.64 


John  Wyclif. 


CHRONOLOGY   OF   EVENTS 


A.D. 

Facts  in  Wyclif's  Life 

KlNCS  OF 

England 

Archbishops  of 
Canterbury 

Edward  III. 

W.  Whittlesea. 

1374.  Appointed    by    Crown     to 

living  of  Lutterworth. 

1372 

Appointed  on  Commission  to 

to 

confer  with  Papal  legates  at 

1375 

Bruges. 

1375.   Resides  at  Bruges  as  Com- 

1375. S.Sudbury. 

missioner,  fifty  days. 

Refuses  the  prebend  of  Aust. 

1376.  Complaints  of  Wyclif  made 
by  the  friars  to  the  English 
bishops,  and  then  to  Rome. 

1377.  Summoned  to  St.  Paul's  by 

1377.  Richard  II. 

Courtenay ;  attended  by  Lan- 

1376 

caster  and  Percy.     Citizens 

to 

break  up  the  meeting. 

1377 

In  residence  at  Black  Hall, 
Oxford. 

Five  Papal  bulls  against  Wy- 
clif, who  makes  his  defence 
at    Oxford  and   in    Parlia- 
ment. 

Wyclif,  consulted  by  Parlia- 
ment as  to  payment  of  Peter's 
Pence,  refutes  the  claim, but 
declines  to  advise  non-pay- 
ment. 

Chronology. 


365 


CONNECTED   WITH   WYCLIF. 


Popes 

Kings  of  France 

Contemporary  Events 

Gregory  XI. 

1372.  English  navy  destroyed. 

1373.  Mission   to   Avignon    about 

provisions,  etc.    Courtenay 
in  Convocation  demands  re- 
lief for  the  Church.     Com- 
mission on  alien  incumbents. 

1374.  Peace  with  France  :  media- 

tion of  Pope. 

1375.  Conferences  at  Bruges,  politi- 

cal and  ecclesiastical.  Com- 
promises effected  in  both 
cases. 

Senility  of  the  King.  Great 
influence  of  Alice  Perrers. 

Parliament  not  summoned 
this  year. 

Courtenay  Bishop  of  London. 

1376.  Good   Parliament.     Ecclesi- 

astics  recalled.     Prince   of 
Wales     dies.       Parliament 
overruled.     Wykeham   dis- 
graced and  Speaker  impris- 
oned. Pope  excommunicates 
the  Florentines.  Attacks  on 
foreigners  in  England. 

1377.  Courtenay      demands       the 

restoration  of  Wykeham. 
Commons  packed  by  John 
of  Gaunt.  Attempt  to 
curtail  the  privileges  of 
the  City.  Riots  in  London 
and  Westminster. 

First  poll-tax. 

Death  of  Edward  III.  War 
renewed  with  France. 

366 


John  Wyclif. 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  EVENTS 


A.D. 

Facts  in  Wyclif's  Life 

Kings  of 
England 

Archbishops  of 
Canterbury 

1378 

to 

I380 

1378.  Cited  to  Lambeth;  re-asserts 
his    conclusions.      Princess 
of  Wales  protects  him.  Lon- 
doners again  interrupt.    He 
withdraws   to    Lutterworth 
or  Oxford. 

1379.  Serious   illness   at   Oxford. 
Friars    call   upon   him   for 
retraction.    He  defies  them. 

Sends  his  defence  and  chal- 
lenge to  Rome. 

Great  literary  activity :  writes 
De  Veritate   Sane  tee    Scrip- 
inrce. 

Richard  II. 

I38l 

to 

1382 

1 38 1.  Begins  to  lecture  at  Oxford 
against    transubstantiation, 
and  carries  many  with  him. 
Inquiry  by  Chancellor  Ber- 
ton  and  a  Council  of  twelve. 
Wyclif's  doctrine  condemn- 
ed, and  he  is  forbidden  to 
lecture.      Appeals    to    the 
King  ;   John  of  Gaunt  asks 
him  10  desist. 

Writes    his     Confession    or 
Apologia,  claiming  the   au- 
thority of  the  earlier  Church. 
Many   replies  from  monks 
and    others.        Proceedings 
against  the  Poor  Priests. 

1382.  Accused  of  complicity  in  the 

Peasants'  Revolt.    Cited  by 
Courtenay  before  a  Synod  at 
the  priory  of  the  Black  Friars 
in  London.  He  does  not  at- 
tend   (through    illness    or 
otherwise),  but  twenty-four 
of  his  conclusions  are  con- 
demned, for  heresy  or  error. 
(The    Earthquake    Synod.) 
His  chief  supporters  con- 
demned at  subsequent  meet- 
ings. 

He  re-asserts  his  conclusions 
at  Oxford. 

Richard  II. 

1381.  W.  Courte- 
nay. 

Chronology. 


367 


CONNECTED  WITH  WYCLIF. 


Popes 

Kings  of  France 

Contemporary  Events 

SCHISM. 

ro^ai  R.UrbanVI. 
1370  ^Clement  VII. 

1380.  Charles  VI. 

1378.  England  acknowledges  Pope 

Urban.         Courtenay     ex- 
communicates    Lancaster's 
friends.     Parliament  sits  at 
Gloucester.    John  of  Gaunt 
reconciled  to  the  Church. 

1379.  Sudbury    appointed    Chan- 

cellor. 

1380.  New  and  more  stringent  poll- 

tax  imposed.  John  of  Gaunt 
Envoy    to     Scotland     and 
Lieutenant  of  the  Marches. 

' 

1 38 1.  Ruthless  exaction  of  second 

poll-tax. 

Peasants'  Revolt  ;  the  march 
on  London  ;  terms  granted. 
Cruel  suppression,  and  repu- 
diation of  the  terms  by  Par- 
liament ;  7,000  executed. 

Serfdom  virtually  ended. 

Courtenay  Archbishop  and 
Chancellor. 

1382.  Richard  II.  marries  Anne  of 

Bohemia. 

Parliament  calls  on  Courte- 
nay to  proceed  against  Wy- 
clif  and  others.  He  assem- 
bles a  Synod,  sends  Stokys 
to  Oxford,  reduces  Rygge 
and  others  to  submission. 

Processional  Litany  in  Lon- 
don, Whitsunday. 

Convocation  of  St.  Frides- 
wide's,  Oxford. 

368 


John  Wyclif. 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  EVENTS 


A.D. 

Facts  in  Wyclif's  Life  and  Relat- 
ing to  Him 

Kings  of 
England 

Archbishops  of 
Canterbury 

1382 

to 

1384 

1382.  (Cont.)      Greater     literary 

activity.     Collects  his  ser- 
mons ;  writes  a  number  of 
English    tracts,    in    which 
he    denounces    the    Papal 
crusade,  the  conduct  of  the 
Friars,  etc.  Engaged  on  Eng- 
lish translation  of  the  Bible. 
First  stroke  of  paralysis. 

1383.  Persecution  of  his  friends. 
Some  fall  away.    Continued 
literary  activity.  Writes  the 

Trialogus. 
Cited  to  Rome.  Excuses  him- 
self on  the  ground  of  ina- 
bility to  travel. 

1384.  Has  a  second  stroke  at  Lut- 
terworth,     Dec.  28th,  and 
dies  Dec.  31st. 

Richard  II. 

W.  Courtenay. 

1385 

to 
1401 

1385.   Buried  in  the  church  at  Lut- 
terworth. 
Second  text  of  his  Bible  pre- 
pared   by    Purvey.      (The 
Pleshy    Bible,    copied    for 
Thomas  Woodstock,  Duke 
of     Gloucester,     murdered 
1397,  was  valued  amongst 
his  effects  at  40J.    It  is  now 
in  the  British  Museum.) 

1397.    Arundel    presides    over    a 
Synod      which     condemns 
eighteen      conclusions      of 
Wyclif. 

1401.  Jerome  of  Prague  and  others 
carry  many  works  of  Wyclif 
to  Bohemia. 

Richard  II. 
1399.  Henry  IV. 

1396.  T.Arundel. 

Chronology. 


369 


CONNECTED  WITH  WYCLIF. 


Popes 

Kings  of  France 

Contemporary  Events 

Charles  VI. 

1382.  (Cont.J  Bishop  Despencer's 
expedition(papal  crusade)  to 
Flanders  ordered  by  Urban. 
Bulls  and    plenary    indul- 
gence proclaimed  in  Eng- 
land.    Active  assistance  of 
the  Friars. 

1383.  Crusade  from  May  to  Sep- 

tember ;  disastrous  result. 
The  Scots  raid  Northumber- 
land. John  of  Gaunt  retal- 
iates. 

Chaucer  assisted  by  Lancaster. 
Inclines  to  Church  reform 
and  ecclesiastical  poverty. 

Gower  in  his  Latin  and 
English  poems  attacks  the 
peasants,  Lollardism,  and 
the  policy  of  Richard  II. 
(i38r-97). 

1389.  R.Boniface  IX. 
1 394.  A. Benedict  XIII. 

1385.  Commons  demand  seculari- 
sation of  Church  property. 

1388.  Courtenay  (under  parlia- 
mentary powers)  proceeds 
against  heretics  and  seizes 
books.  Lays  Leicester  un- 
der interdict,  '89. 

1390.  Statute  of  Provisors  enlarged. 

1391.  Statute   of    Mortmain    con- 

firmed. 
1393.  Second  and  more  stringent 
Statute  of  Praemunire. 
Peace  between  England  and 
France. 

1395.  Parliament  petitions  against 

alien  clerics. 

1396.  Archbishop   Arundel    opens 

severely  against  the  Lol- 
lards. Accused  of  intrigues 
and  banished,  '97. 

1399.  Duke  of  Lancaster  dies. 
Richard  II.  deposed. 

1401.  Statute  De  Hcerelico  Combu- 
rendo.    Sawtre  burned. 

37o 


yohn  Wyclif, 


CHRONOLOGY   OF   EVENTS 


1402 

to 

1455 


Facts  Relating  to  Wyclif 


1403.  Huss  protests  against  con- 
demnation of  Wycliffism. 


1407.  Arundel's  Council  at  Oxford. 


1409.  Two  hundred  and  sixty-seven 

errors  gathered  by  an  Ox- 
ford committee  from  Wy- 
clif's  works.  The  books 
burned  at  Carfax. 

14 10.  Papal  bull  against  Wycliff- 
ism in  Bohemia.  Seven- 
teen works  condemned. 
Huss  and  others  protest  ; 
two  hundred  copies  pub 
licly  burned. 

141 1.  Huss  excommunicated. 

141 3.  Wyclif s  books  burned  by 
order  of  the  Council  of 
Rome. 


1415. 


1416. 


1423. 


The  Council  of  Constance 
confirms  the  condemnation 
of  the  Council  of  Rome,  and 
orders  Wyclif 's  bones  to  be 
exhumed  and  cast  forth. 
Chicheley's  Inquisition. 


Condemnation     of    Wyclif 
by  the  Council  of  Pavia. 
1428.  Bishop  Flemmyng  exhumes 
and  burns  Wyclif's  bones  at 
Lutterworth. 


Kings  of 
England 


Henry  IV. 


141 3.  Henry  V. 


1422.  Henry  VI. 


Archbishops  ok 
Canterbury 


T.  Arundel. 


1414.  H.  Chiche- 
ley. 


1443.  J.  Stafford. 
1452.  J.  Kemp. 
1454.  T.  Bourch- 


Chronology. 


37i 


CONNECTED  WITH  WYCLIF. 


Popes 


Kings  of  France 


Contemporary  Events 


1404.  R.  Innocent  VII, 
1406.  R.  Gregory  XII. 

1409.  Alexander  V. 


1410.  John  XXIII. 


(Interregnum:  May  29, 
1415-Nov.  11,1417.) 


141 7.  Martin  V. 


1422.  Charles  VII. 


1404  and  1410.  The  Commons  re- 
new their  demand  for  secu- 
larisation. 

The  Lollards  take  sides 
against  Henry  IV.  at 
Shrewsbury  and  elsewhere. 

1409.  Council  of  Pisa.  Gregory 
and  Benedict  deposed. 


1410.  Badby  of  Evesham  burned. 


141 1.  Arundel  asserts  his  right  to 
visit  Oxford. 

1413.  Henry  IV.  d.  Sir  John  Old- 

castle  (Lord  Cobham)  con- 
demned as  a  heretic.  Coun- 
cil at  Rome. 

1414.  Abp.  Arundel  d.      One  hun- 

dred    alien      priories     dis- 
solved in    England. 
1414-18.  Council     of    Constance. 
John  XXIII.  deposed.  End 
of  Schism, 

141 5.  Huss  burned  at  Constance. 

Battle  of  Agincourt. 


141 7.  Cobham  burned  in  England  ; 
afterwards  Claydon  and 
Taillour. 

Beaufort,    son   of    John   of 
Gaunt, made  Cardinal;  after- 
wards Kemp  and  Bourchier. 
Council  of  Pavia. 
Council  of  Basle. 
1450.  Rising  in  Kent. 
1455.  Civil  war  breaks  out  in  Eng- 
land. Indications  of  Lollard 
or   anti-ecclesiastical   lean- 
ings on  the  Yorkist  side. 


1418. 


1423 
I43i 


INDEX. 


Abelard,  49,  63,  68 
Anne  of  Bohemia,  300 
Antichrist,  224,  332 
Aristotle,  61,  64,  73,  216,  355 
Arnold,  T.,  213,  256 
Arundel,  Abp.,  9,  223,  346/". 
Aston,  John,  212,  230,  308^*. 
Augustinians,  45,  246,   247,  254, 

301 
Avignon,  38,  57,  73,  93, 101, 122, 

125,  144,  156,  220 

B 

Bacon,  Robert  and  Roger,  50,  64 
Bale,  Bp.,  9,  15,  17,  50,  213 
Ball,  John,  259,  284/".  ;  his  fly- 
leaves, 292  ff.  ;  his  death,  297, 
300 
Balliol  College,  Wyclif's  connec- 
tion with,  6,  86,  94-6,  200 
Bebenburg,  73 
Bedenham,  L.,  230,  308^. 
Benedict  XI.,  Pope,  38 
Benedict  XII.,  Pope,  102 


Benedictines,  41,  no,   118,  147, 

148,  247,  302 
Berton,W.,  Chancellor,  84,  125, 

127,  132,  230,  243/:,  254,  310 
Bible,  English  translation  of,  99, 

193  ff- 
Black  Death,    102,    iro,    143-5, 

276 
Black  Hall,  182 
Bohemia,  14,  63,  68,  338^. 
Boniface  VIII.,  32-8 
Boniface  IX.,  347 
Bradwardine,  Abp.,  63,  68,  141 

f> 

Bruges,  conferences  at,   121  ff., 

151,  158 


Calvinists,  69 

Cambridge,  45,  48,  63,  186,  301, 

307 

Canon  Law,  66 
Canterbury  Hall,  148,  239 
Canterbury,  Wyclif   condemned 

at,  310 
Caxton,  350 

373 


374 


Index. 


Chaucer,  42,  64,   69,   106,  138, 

199,  266,  326 
Chicheley,  Abp.,  353  ff. 
Chronicon  Anglice,  84,  154,  162 

jr..  187 

Church  of  England,  23,  104,  108 
ff.,  121,  141/".,  149.  158,  185, 
250,  299,  342,  356,  357 

Civil  law,  66,  67 

Clement  VI.,  Pope,  93,  102,  142 

Clement  VII.,  220,  327 

Clifford,  Lewis,  187 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  onWyclif,  246, 

note 
Commission  on  alien  benefices, 

126 
Council  of  Constance,  220,  223, 

349 
Courtenay,  Abp.,  74,  84,  132, 
140,  149/*.,  157/*.,  176,  180 
ff.,  220,  250,  257,  271  ;  suc- 
ceeds Sudbury,  299 ;  third 
prosecution  of  Wyclif,  301^".  / 
his  character,  313 

D 

De  la  Mare,  Peter,  134-7,  166 
De  la  Mare,  Thomas,  136 
Despenser,  Bp.,  leads  the  Papal 

crusade,  327  ff. 
Dominic,  St.,  46,  338 
Duns  Scotus,  68,  70 


Edward  III.,  27,  99,  103,  108, 

115,  118/:,  168,  281 
Edward  IV.,  357 
Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  103, 

115,  119/".,  133-7,  242 


Eucharist,  interpretation  of  the 
sacrament,  8,  222,  227,  243  ff., 

257 

Europe  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, 22 

Evangelical  poverty,  56-8,  70, 
88,  93,  98,  111-3,  155,  181 


Fasciculi   Zizaniorum ,  15  ;    see 

"  Netter  "  and  "  Shirley  " 
Feudalism,  62,  273  ff. 

J    Fitzralph,  63,  93,  233,  241 

!    Flagellants,  144-6 

;  Flemmyng,  Bp.,  13,  230,  334, 
350 

j  Friars,  various,  9,  45,  50,  93, 
no,  148,  150,  158,  162,  194, 
202,  233,  301,  328,  352  ;  Do- 
minican, 41,  242,  247  ;  Fran- 
ciscan, 52,  57,  68   247 


Gilbert,  Bp.,   125/*.,   132,  151, 

301,  319 
Gloucester,  Duke  of,  164 
Gloucester  Parliament,  169  ff. 
Gregory  VII.,  Pope,  28 
Gregory  IX.,  47 
Gregory  XL,  38,  125,  153,  169 

ff.,  190,  220,  222,  337,  342 
Grosteste,  Bp.,  92 

H 

Henry  IV.,  351 
Henry  V.,  354.355 
Henry  VIII.,  357 
Hereford,    Nicholas,    94,     196, 
212,  230,  305,  lo&ff. 


Index. 


375 


Hugate,  H.,  85,  96 

Hugate,  J.,  94,  96 

Huss,  John,  220,  337,  349 


Innocent  III.,  Pope,  28,  47,  55, 

101,  338 
Islip,  Abp.,  142-7,  285 

J 

Jamys,  W.,  220 

Jerome  of  Prague,  68,  220 

John,  King  of  England,  28, 
1 1 1-4 

John  of  Gaunt,  99,  101,  104^"., 
US  ff'J  his  character,  \2off., 
*33  ff-S  story  of  his  birth, 
138,  151/".,  158/".,  184,  241, 
244/".,  279,  301,  308,  352 

John  of  Northampton,  184,  309 

John  XXII.,  Pope,  27,  57,  70, 
102 

John  XXIIL,  349 


Knox  and  Wyclif ,  a  comparison 

and  a  contrast,  1-5 
Knyghton,  254,  319 
Kynyngham,  51,  114,  301,  307 


Lambeth  inquiry,  185^. 
Langham,  Abp.,  147,  232,  239 
Langland,  42,  145,  269 
Lechler,  Prof.,  71,  79 
Leland  on  Wyclifs   birthplace, 

77 
Lewis,  Rev.  John,  15,  213 


Lollards,  50-2,  58,  194,  212, 
269,  289,  309,  344/*.,  352 

Lutterworth,  13,  132,  195,  222, 
254,  257,  268,  321 

M 

Marsiglio,  58,  61.  63,  68,  71  ff., 

241,  337 
Martin*V.,  Pope,  13,  350 
Matthew,  F.  D.,  77,  214 
Mediaeval  schools  and   universi- 
ties, 62,  89,  100,  150 
Milton,  69 

Monks  and  monachism,  40,  75, 
247,  310,  343.  See  "Bene- 
dictines." 

N 

Netter  of  Walden,  9,  14,  17, 186, 

223,  243,  248,  250,  254,  335 
Nicholas  II.,  Pope,  253 
Nicholas  III.,  Pope,  57,  58 


Ockham,  William  of,  56,  61,  63, 

68-75,  240,  337 
Oldcastle,  Sir  J.,  345,  352 
Oxford,  before  Wyclif,  48,  62, 
67,  232  ;  in  Wyclifs  time,  3, 
6,  58,  68,  74,  85/:,  93-8, 149, 
176,  1  %o  ff.,  222,  229,  243^"., 
268,  302/:,  318  #.,  337  ff.; 
after  Wyclif,  3A1  ff- 


Papal,  bulls,  35,  158,  159,  168, 
173,  175  ff-  >'  crusade,  4,  171, 
327  ff. ;   curia,    14,    33,    112, 


376 


Index. 


192  ;  decretals,  58,  64,  66,  142  ; 
encroachments,  28  ff.,  101, 
109-15,  121,  123,  130,  242; 
politics,  28,  62,  124,  190,  341 

Parliament,  100,  105  ff.  ;  exclu- 
sion of  clergy  from  office,  116, 
125,  164,  173,  274,  299,  352  ; 
the  good,  133-7,  251 

Pastor,  Prof.,  337 

Peasants'  Revolt,  258^.,  2%o>ff.; 
its  suppression,  295^*.,  327 

Perrers,  Alice,  105,  135, 137,  154 

Perugia,  assembly  of  Franciscans 
at,  57,  58 

Philipot,  John,  165,  274 

Philippa,  Queen,  128,  138,  167 

Poll  tax,  278/: 

Poole,  R.  L.,  on  the  influence  of 
Marsiglio,  71^".,  77,  262^". 

Poor  Priests,  56,  99, 193,  259^*., 
298,  301,  324 

Portraits  of  Wyclif,  16 

Prague,  63,  68,  220,  338 

Princess  (Joan)  of  Wales,  99,  149, 
166,  184,  187  ff. 

Purvey,  John,  196,  212,  218,  230 


R 


Reformation,  the  earlier,  31,  41, 
58,  106,  115,  144,  272  ;  the 
later,  68,  106,  226,  337,  343 

Repyngdon,  P.,  230,  305/". 

Richard  II.,  137,  168  ff.,  190, 
278,  283,  295/-.,  346 

Rogers,  Prof.  J.  E.  Thorold, 
75  note,  277 

Rygge»  Robert,  Chancellor  of 
Oxford,  230,  246,  248,  302  ff.  ; 
submits  to  Courtenay,  308 


Salisbury,  Earl  of,  345  ff. 
Schism  of  1378,  39,  219/".,  231, 

341,  349 
Schoolmen,  8,  31,  48,  58,  59/"., 

141,  198,  237 
Shirley,  Dr.,   11,   77,   118,  147, 

213,  227,  243 
Spiritual    Franciscans    (Observ- 
ants), 57,  70,  241 
St.  Frideswide's,  conference  at, 

3i8 
Stokys,  Peter,  271,  303/".,  311 
St.  Paul's  inquiry,  12,  160-4 
Sudbury,  Abp.,    74,    149,    176, 

180/".,  251,  279/*.,  285  ;  his 

death,  292 
Synod  of  Blackfriars,   301  ;  the 

charges,  304  ;  earthquake,  302; 

conclusions,  311  ff. 


Tyler,  Wat,  284 

Tyssington,  John,  247,  250,  254 

U 

Universities,  62.   See  **  Mediaeval 

universities." 
Urban  V.,  Pope,  125,  130 
Urban  VI.,  191,  220,  231,  327^*. 


Vaughan,  Dr.,  213 

W 

Walsingham's  History,   76,  155, 
169,  278,  286^".,  315 


Index. 


377 


Walworth,  165,  274,  283 
Whitcliffe   or  Wyclif,  John,   of 

Mayfield,  83,  147 
Wilkie's  picture  of  Knox,  1 
Wyclif,  John  (1320  ?-84),  his 
character,  3-14,  60,  233-7, 
240,  265,  314  ;  his  biographers, 
8-16  ;  his  portraits,  16  ;  his 
training,  8,  92  ;  his  works,  10, 
98,  109,  in,  115,  118,  170, 
191  ;  his  English  Bible  and 
tracts,  196  ff.,  238,  251, 
257,  261,  270,  307,  320,  323, 
325  ff.  ;  his  Milieu,  22,  30, 
59,  101  ff.;  his  descent  from 
the  Schoolmen,  59  ff.,  71 
ff.,  92,  240  ;  his  early  days, 
birth,  and  parentage,  76  ff., 
92  ;  his  name,  83  ;  genealogy, 
85  ff.;  goes  up  to  Oxford,  89  ; 
Master  of  Balliol,  94  ;  Rector 
of  Fillingham,  95  ;  of  Ludgar- 
shall,  96  ;  participation  in 
politics,  100  ff.;  King's  chap- 
lain, 104  ;  argues  against 
tribute,  in  ff.;  against  a 
Benedictine,  118  ;  mission  to 
Bruges,  123  ff.;  his  expenses, 
127 ;  Rector  of  Lutterworth, 
132  ;  declines  prebend  of 
Aust,  132,  147  ;  in  conflict 
with  Courtenay,  152  ;  hostility 
of  the  friars,  50,  158  ;  cited 
to  St.  Paul's,  160 ;  consulted 
as  to  Peter's  pence,  170  ;  ad- 
vises payment,  172  ;  the  nine- 
teen charges  in  Pope  Gregory's 


bulls,  177  ;  Wyclif's  answers, 
180  ;  cited  again  to  St.  Paul's, 
184  ;  change  of  venue  to  Lam- 
beth, 185  ;  his  thirty-three 
conclusions,  192  ;  his  errors 
according  to  Netter,  223  ; 
progress  of  his  ideas  on  the 
Eucharist,  227  ff.;  his  illness 
in  1379,  234  ;  renewed  attacks 
on  the  friars,  238  ;  cited  by 
Chancellor  de  Berton,  244  ;  his 
views  on  Transubstantiation, 
id.;  condemned  and  inhibited, 
247  ;  he  appeals  to  the  Crown, 
249  ;  his  Confession,  252  ;  his 
influence  on  the  peasants, 
259  ff.;  effects  of  the  revolt  on 
Wyclif  and  his  friends,  298  ; 
condemned  at  the  Earthquake 
Synod,  301-13 ;  his  Petition, 
315  ;  his  alleged  submissions, 
254,  319  ;  fresh  illness,  320  ; 
retires  from  Oxford,  321  ;  lit- 
erary activity  at  Lutterworth, 
324  ;  cited  to  Rome,  329  ;  his 
death,  333  ff.;  permanent 
results  of  his  life  and  work, 
336  ff.;  his  teaching  con- 
demned at  Constance,  349  ;  his 
bones  burned,  350 ;  his  place 
in  history,  358 
Wycliffe  Rectory,  the  patronage 

of,  85/".,  96 
Wycliffe,  W.,  85,  95,  96 
Wykeham,  William  of,  Bp.,  116, 

133-9.   154-6.    l66>  250,  301, 
318 


Iberoes  of  tbe  IRatioim 


EDITED    BY 


EVELYN  ABBOTT  M.A.,  Fellow  of  B*alliol  College,  Oxford. 


A  SERIES  of  biographical  studies  of  the  lives  and  work 
of  a  number  of  representative  historical  characters  about 
whom  have  gathered  the  great  traditions  of  the  Nations 
to  which  they  belonged,  and  who  have  been  accepted,  in 
many  instances,  as  types  of  the  several  National  ideals. 
With  the  life  of  each  typical  character  will  be  presented 
a  picture  of  the  National  conditions  surrounding  him 
during  his  career. 

The  narratives  are  the  work  of  writers  who  are  recog- 
nized authorities  on  their  several  subjects,  and,  while 
thoroughly  trustworthy  as  history,  will  present  picturesque 
and  dramatic  "stories"  of  the  Men  and  of  the  events  con- 
nected with  them. 

To  the  Life  of  each  "  Hero  "  will  be  given  one  duo 
decimo  volume,  handsomely  printed  in  large  type,  pro- 
vided with  maps  and  adequately  illustrated  according  tc 
the  special  requirements  of  the  several  subjects.  The 
volumes  will  be  sold  separately  as  follows : 

Cloth  extra $150 

Half  morocco,  uncut  edges,  gilt  top       .         .  1   75 

Large  paper,  limited  to  250  numbered  copies  for 
subscribers  to  the  series.  These  may  be  ob- 
tained in  sheets  folded,  or  in  cloth,  uncut 
edges 3  50 


The    first    group    of    the   Series   will    comprise    twelve 
volumes,  as  follows  : 

Nelson,  and  the  Naval  Supremacy  of  England.  By  W.  Clark  Russell, 
author  of  "  The  Wreck  of  the  Grosvenor,"  etc. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  the  Struggle  of  Protestantism  for  Exist- 
ence. By  C.  R.  L.  Fletcher,  M.  A.,  late  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College, 
Oxford. 

Pericles,  and  the  Golden  Age  of  Athens.     By  Evelyn  Abbott,  M.A., 

Fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
Theodoric  the  Goth,  the  Barbarian  Champion  of  Civilization.     By 

Thomas  Hodgkin,  author  of  "  Italy  and  Her  Invaders,"  etc. 
Sir  Philip  Sidney,  and  the  Chivalry  of  England.     By  H.  R.   Fox- 
Bourne,  author  of  "  The  Life  of  John  Locke,"  etc. 
Julius  Caesar,  and  the  Organization   of  the   Roman  Empire.      By 

W.  Warde  Fowler,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  the  Extension  of  Greek  Rule  and  of 

Greek  Ideas.     By  Prof.  Benjamin  I.  Wheeler,  Cornell  University. 
Charlemagne,  the  Reorganizer  of  Europe.     By  Prof.  George  L.  Burr, 

Cornell  University. 
Cicero,  and  the  Fall  of  the  Roman  Republic.     By  J.  L.  Strachan 

Davidson,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
Louis  XIV.,  and  the  Zenith  of  the  French  Monarchy.     By  Arthur 

Hassall,  M.A.,  Senior  Student  of  Chust  Church  College,  Oxford. 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  and  the  Adventurers  of  England.     By  A.  L. 

Smith,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
Bismarck.     The  New  German  Empire :   How  It  Arose ;  What  It 

Replaced  ;  and  What  It  Stands  For.     By  James  Sime,  author  of 

"A  Life  of  Lessing,"  etc. 

To  be  followed  by : 

Henry  of  Navarre,  and  the  Huguenots  in  France.     By  P.  F.  Willert, 

M.A.,  Fellow  of  Exeter  College,  Oxford. 
William  of  Orange,  the  Founder  of  the  Dutch  Republic.     By  Ruth 

Putnam. 
Hannibal,  and  the   Struggle  between  Carthage   and   Rome.      By 

E.  A.  Freeman,  D.C.L.,    LL.D.,  Regius  Prof,    of   History  in   the 

University    of  Oxford. 
Alfred  the  Great,  and  the  First  Kingdom  in  England.    By  F.  York 

Powell,  M.A.,  Senior  Student  of  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford. 
Charles  the  Bold,  and  the  Attempt  to  Found  a  Middle  Kingdom. 

By  R.  Lodge,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Brasenose  College,  Oxford. 
John  Calvin,  the  Hero  of  the  French  Protestants.     By  Owen  M. 

Edwards,  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 
Oliver  Cromwell,  and  the   Rule  of  the  Puritans   in  England.     By 

Charles  Firth,  Balliol   College,  Oxford. 
Marlborough,  and   England  as  a   Military   Power.     By  C.   W.    C. 

Oman,  A.M.,  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College,  Oxford. 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
New  York  London 

27  and  29  West  Twenty-third  Street  27  King  William  Street,  Strand 


XTbe  Stoq?  of  the  IRations. 


MESSRS.  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS  take  pleasure  in 
announcing  that  they  have  in  course  of  publication,  in 
co-operation  with  Mr.  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  of  London,  a 
series  of  historical  studies,  intended  to  present  in  a 
graphic  manner  the  stories  of  the  different  nations  that 
have  attained  prominence  in  history. 

In  the  story  form  the  current  of  each  national  life  is 
distinctly  indicated,  and  its  picturesque  and  noteworthy 
periods  and  episodes  are  presented  for  the  reader  in  their 
philosophical  relation  to  each  other  as  well  as  to  universal 
history. 

It  is  the  plan  of  the  writers  of  the  different  volumes  to 
enter  into  the  real  life  of  the  peoples,  and  to  bring  them 
before  the  reader  as  they  actually  lived,  labored,  and 
struggled — as  they  studied  and  wrote,  and  as  they  amused 
themselves.  In  carrying  out  this  plan,  the  myths,  with 
which  the  history  of  all  lands  begins,  will  not  be  over- 
looked, though  these  will  be  carefully  distinguished  from 
the  actual  history,  so  far  as  the  labors  of  the  accepted 
historical  authorities  have  resulted  in  definite  conclusions. 

The  subjects  of  the  different  volumes  have  been  planned 
to  cover  connecting  and,  as  far  as  possible,  consecutive 
epochs  or  periods,  so  that  the  set  when  completed  will 
present  in  a  comprehensive  narrative  the  chief  events  in 


the  great  STORY  OF  THE  NATIONS ;  but  it  is,  of  course 
not  always  practicable  to  issue  the  several  volumes  in 
their  chronological  order. 

The  "  Stories  "  are  printed  in  good  readable  type,  and 
in  handsome  i2mo  form.  They  are  adequately  illustrated 
and  furnished  with  maps  and  indexes.  Price,  per  vol., 
cloth,  $1.50.     Half  morocco,  gilt  top,  $1.75. 

The  following  volumes  are  now  ready  (November,  1891): 

THE  STORY  OF  GREECE.     Prof.  Jas.  A.  Harrison. 
ROME.     Arthur  Gilman. 
THE  JEWS.     Prof.  James  K.  Hosmer. 
CHALDEA.     Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
GERMANY.     S.  Baring-Gould. 
NORWAY.     Hjalmar  H.  Boyesen. 
SPAIN.     Rev.  E.  E.  and  Susan  Hale. 
HUNGARY.     Prof.  A.  Vambery. 
CARTHAGE.     Prof.  Alfred  J.  Church. 
THE  SARACENS.     Arthur  Gilman. 
THE  MOORS  IN  SPAIN.     Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
THE  NORMANS.     Sarah  Orne  Jewett. 
PERSIA.     S.  G.  W.  Benjamin. 
ANCIENT  EGYPT.     Prof.  Geo.  Rawlinson. 
ALEXANDER'S  EMPIRE.     Prof.  J.  P.  Mahaffy. 
ASSYRIA.     Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
THE  GOTHS.     Henry  Bradley. 
IRELAND.     Hon.  Emily  Lawless. 
TURKEY.     Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
MEDIA,  BABYLON,  AND  PERSIA.  Z.  A.  Ragozin, 
MEDIAEVAL  FRANCE.     Prof.  Gustav  Masson. 
HOLLAND.     Prof.  J.  Thorold  Rogers. 
MEXICO.     Susan  Hale. 
PHOENICIA.     Prof.  Geo.  Rawlinson. 
THE  HANSA  TOWNS.     Helen  Zimmern. 
EARLY  BRITAIN.     Prof.  Alfred  J.  Church. 
THE  BARBARY  CORSAIRS.  Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
RUSSIA.     W.  R.  Morfill. 

THE  JEWS  UNDER  ROME.     W.  D.  Morrison. 
SCOTLAND.     John  Mackintosh. 
SWITZERLAND.  R.  Stead  and  Mrs.  Arnold  Hug. 
PORTUGAL.     H.  Morse-Stephens. 
THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE.     C.  W.  C.  Oman. 

Now  in  press  for  immediate  issue : 

THE  STORY  OF  SICILY.     E.  A.  Freeman. 

"    VEDIC  INDIA.     Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
"    THE  THIRTEEN  COLONIES.     Helen  A.  Smith. 
"    WALES  AND  CORNWALL.     Owen  M.  Edwards. 
"  "  "    CANADA.     A.  R.  Macfarlane. 


P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
New  York 


T.  FISHER  UNWIN 
London 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN     INITIAL     FINE     OF     25     CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


M*R  I?  1933 
Hm  18  1933 
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